Naruto: Uzumaki's Legacy
by mangame
Summary: The story of Naruto's little bro and what happens that you don't see. Takes place in Naruto II. Slightly AU. Starts off slightly before Shippuden begins.
1. Beginning

1)

"Talk"

Narrate

_Think_

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto unfortunately but hey a guy can hope right?

_**6 years ago…**_

_A very sad Naruto was walking through Konoha in the late evening sunset. This had been no ordinary day for it was graduation day for the Ninja Academy students and Naruto was the only one to fail, again. Hey, it was his second graduation exam and it just had to be on Bunshin no jutsu again._

"_Maybe some good old' Ichiraku'll help clear my mind!" he said out loud, and with that he made his way to his favorite ramen stand._

_When he got there he found a kid, no older than about 5, crying while eating ramen. The kid had messy orange hair, similar to Naruto's but with more spikes, and eyes like his own but green. He had on a black t-shirt and dark orange pants. Upon closer inspection one could see that the shirt and pants had small rips as though they were incredibly old and worn out._

"_Why?" he said between sobs and bites. "Why me. I never did anything bad!"_

"_What's wrong kid?" Naruto asked._

"_The villagers completely ignore him and treat him like trash just like they do to you, Naruto," answered old man Ichiraku. "We treat him to free ramen sometimes if he's starving."_

_Naruto could only stare dumbfounded. Finally he got a hold of himself and said, "What's your name, kid?"_

"_S-Shippuu sir." He whispered._

"_Huh I can't hear you. Speak up!"_

"_Shippuu sir!"_

"_That's more like it. But, hey, no need to be so formal! Where's your family?"_

"_I don't have one, and never did."_

Whoa he's just like me_ he thought and then said "Kid, you and me are really alike."_

"_R-really?"_

_"Yeah, we are. And you know what? Sometimes it's a harsh world. I should know I've been treated like you for my whole life, too. Sometimes I cried. But I learned something from seeing you right now."_

_"R-really?"_

_"Mmm-hm. And that is that I don't want anyone to go through that same suffering I did. And I also believe that two of the same should play the same game. That is to say that I think we should stick together."_

_"Y-you mean it?!"_

_"Yeah, so let's be bros."_

_"You serious?"_

"_Yeah! No prob!" Naruto said with that big, goofy grin of his. "So what do you say? Bros?"_

_Shippuu did his own big smile and said weakly, "yeah. Bros."_

_**Present day**_

"Oh shit! I'm late!" echoed through the village of Konoha.

A grown up Shippuu, clad in a black shirt and orange pants, jumped from rooftop to rooftop saying, "Damnit I'm gonna be late for the academy. Today I just have to be on time!"

About ten minutes later he arrived in the classroom. "Sorry, sorry, sorry I'm late aren't I?"

The scarred, pony-tailed instructor, Iruka, could only stare and say, "I never thought I'd see the day that Uzumaki Shippuu would apologize for being late."

"Everyone knows the only reason he came early was for the whole day recess!" said a boy with green hair down to his shoulders. He had a white t-shirt on with green pants. He had yellow eyes with slit pupils.

"Ah, you know me all to well, Hachuumaru."

"Yeah, yeah might as well get the day started," said Iruka.

The entire class of thirty-three filed outside into the playground. At the quick word of acknowledgement, every student quickly ran off.

"Hey, Hachuumaru," called Shippuu to his friend. "What's up!?"

"Oh, nothin man. Just a little nervous about tomorrow."

"Ah, just forget about that right now! We only get all day recess once a school year! Enjoy it."

"Whatcha wanna do?"

"Wanna cause mayhem and confusion?"

"Hell, yeah. Hell, yeah."

"But what haven't we done?"

"Not much."

"Let's see…we've flooded bathrooms, glued seats, the old bucket over door trick, oiled the slide, got crickets in the girls bathroom, glued the markers, did graffiti on the statue."

"Did graffiti on the roof, glued the legs of the chairs, messed up the lunches, cast genjutsus on the teachers, hid the test papers, did whoopie cushions, jacked up the soap dispenser, magnetized all the staples and stuff, and I think that's about it."

After a long pause Shippuu finally spoke up, "I have an idea! Let's put gum on the bottom of the doors!" (the academy has sliding doors if you don't remember)

"That's the best you could come up with?"

"Do you have anything better?"

"…"

"…"

"…"

"I take that as a no."

"Shut up."

So the boys quietly snuck into the hallway to get to the classroom. Hachuumaru took the gum he recently chewed out of his mouth and prepared to place the weapon on its target.

"And what, might I ask, are you two doing?"

"Busted..."

End


	2. Rivals

1)

Disclaimer: my wish granted I own Naruto… never mind it was a dream :(

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"Heh, heh looks like we're screwed, Hachuumaru," said Shippuu.

"You said it, man."

"Another one of your pranks, huh?" asked Iruka. "Looks like it's time for punishment. Detention Time!!"

"Aw, man," they said at the same time.

The rest of Hachuumaru and Shippuu's day were spent in detention. No recess, just solitude. They were to stay there until the final bell rang, and when it did they were out faster than Chouji would react to the word "food."

"See you tomorrow, Hachuu."

"You too!"

The two friends parted ways to each of their houses. However, Shippuu decided to make a little detour and stop by Ichiraku for a bite to eat. Along the way he say a familiar face. He had red hair that stood up on the sides, a blue sleeveless shirt, and black sweat pants.

"Yo, Kouun!" he yelled.

"What?" he replied.

"I was just saying hi."

"No you weren't. Usually you don't talk to me unless you want something. And usually it's a challenge."

"Damn, why do people know me so well!?"

"What's the challenge this time?"

"I was hoping for a sparring match."

"You're on! How about the roof of that building," he said, pointing to a building with a large, flat roof.

"Sure thing!"

The two made their way to the chosen battlefield. They both got into ready stances. Kouun was the first to make a move. He punched at Shippuu, but he dodged. Shippuu then tried to trip kick Kouun, but Kouun's reactions were too keen. The red head jumped back a few feet from where he started. Shippuu then charged Kouun with a punch but he dodged. Kouun then kicked Shippuu in the chest, sending him flying and landing about where he charged.

"Heh, nice shot," he said getting up.

Kouun charged again, but Shippuu jumped over him. Kouun stopped in his tracks on order to defend. When he looked at the spot where Shippuu should have been, no one was there. He paused to look around for his opponent. He walked to the place in which Shippuu "disappeared." He saw no trap doors or anything to suggest a get away. Suddenly, the floor flew at him and wrapped around his face. The next thing he felt was Shippuu's foot connecting with his face. He fell back a few feet before finally throwing the camouflage cape off of him.

"So, you used the cloak of invisibility technique to camouflage with the floor," he stated. "Then you caught me with my guard down. Nice strategy."

"Heh, thanks."

"But that won't be enough for you to beat me!" he said, jumping into the air. He formed a few handseals and four more Kouuns showed up.

"Hm, a simple clone jutsu."

Shippuu then threw five kunai. The kunai went right through the four leftmost ones, but when it hit the fifth, Kouun turned into a log.

"What!? A clone, replacement combination?"

"Yep," said a voice behind Shippuu. He was then knocked forward quite a bit due to a kick to the back.

Shippuu did a handspring backwards to land on his feet in order to take minimal damage.

"Not bad, seems you've improved since last time," said Kouun.

"I've been training to defeat you, of course."

The two then charged at each other again. Kouun ducked under Shippuu's kick and threw a punch in retaliation. However, Shippuu blocked the punch. Kouun then went on the offensive with a fast barrage of punches that a normal human wouldn't have dreamed of blocking, but Shippuu was used to this kind of attack and he blocked the punches with great speed. He then sent a powerful punch to Kouun's gut. With Kouun stunned, Shippuu took the opportunity to kick him away.

Kouun barely managed to land on his feet. He took a second to catch his breath and said, "Looks like the same combo won't work on you again."

"Yeah, after you beat me like that last time we fought, I improved my reaction time."

Shippuu then prepared to launch an attack but Kouun interupted him.

"It seems we've gathered some unwanted attention."

Shippuu then looked at the huge crowd that had gathered around them, "You're right. Let's call it a draw for now, we don't want any innocent bystanders getting injured."

Kouun waved goodbye to Shippuu and leapt off the rooftop. He went to the direction of his house as Shippuu did the same.

"_Man, being rivals with the genius of the Raiden clan is difficult…"_

END

Man my story chapters for this aren't very long but they'll probably get better. Now that I've revived this story, I might be uploading this along with Winds of Change .


	3. The Graduation

Welcome all to my Dragonball Z story

Shippuu woke up to one of the most annoying things in existence…**alarm****clocks**. He sat up with incredibly messy hair. With a loud yawn he went to his refrigerator and pulled out a carton of milk. Then he went to his pantry and got some beef ramen. Next he went to his sink and got a pair of souvenir chopsticks that his brother got him. _Bro…I wonder how and where he is right now,_ he thought. After heating and eating his ramen, Shippuu brushed his teeth and took a shower. He put on his usual clothes. He noticed his calendar and smiled. He then ran to the Academy, either not noticing or ignoring the looks he was getting from some of the villagers. He surprisingly made it on time.

"Okay, okay everybody settle down. Yes, today is the day when you will, hopefully, become genin," said Iruka. "We will be testing you in the following activities: taijutsu, weapon proficiency, genjutsu, application of knowledge, and ninjutsu. We will be grading you according to how you do. For each event you can get possible points out of ten. That means that there are fifty total points. If you get a total of thirty-two or above you graduate. Does everybody understand?" After nods of approval from everyone in the classroom he said, "well, let's get started then."

The first test was taijutsu. You had forty-five seconds to hit one of the chunin teachers a number of times. The more hits you land, the more points you get. In this event, Shippuu got a 8. The next event was weapon proficiency. There were twenty targets about the size of a world book encyclopedia. If you successfully hit all twenty targets, you get a ten of ten. In this exam Shippuu got a 6.5 on this test. The third test was genjutsu. One of the chunin teachers would put you under a simple genjutsu. The point is to get out of it. The more time you take, the less points you get, however, if you take more than three minutes, you get a zero. This was not one of Shippuu's strong points but he still knew the basics giving him enough luck to get a 4. Now the students get a short break.

"Wow, this is tough," Shippuu said to Hachuumaru while eating lunch.

After taking a sip from his soda, Hachuumaru said, "I know, it is pretty tough. What have you gotten so far?"

"Eight in taijutsu, six and a half in weapon prof, and a four in genjutsu."

"Well I got an eight in taijutsu, a five in weapon prof, and another eight in genjutsu."

"Man, you're good. I'd say you're gonna graduate for sure."

"Well if you get an three in this next exam you'd better get a ten in ninjutsu if you wanna graduate."

"Thanks for adding on the pressure!"

The break then ended after they finished eating and they went straight to the next exam, application of knowledge. This was the worst nightmare of many students. A written exam. It was basically questions on the basic information a ninja should know. Shippuu got a 6 on this. The fifth and final test was ninjutsu. The students had to perform specific jutsu and if they succeeded in all, they got full points. The jutsu this time were the kawarimi, cloak of invisibility, rope escape, henge, and bunshin. For the kawarimi test the teacher would hit you and if you successfully replaced yourself, you would get one or two points, depending on what you replaced yourself with. For the cloak of invisibility you basically played hide-and-seek with the teacher. Depending on the time it took for your proctor to find you, you would get from zero to two points. For the rope escape, the proctor would tie you up with a knot and you would have to escape within two minutes. If you failed to escape you got no points and depending on the time it took for you to escape, you would get up to two points. For the henge and bunshin tests, you had to perform the jutsu. The henge test was for two successful transformations, one into Iruka and another into any classmate. You can pretty much guess how points were allocated for this. For the bunshin test, all you had to do was make three copies of yourself. For the kawarimi test Shippuu got 1.5. For cloak of invisibility, his specialty, he got a 2. In rope escape he got a 0.5. In the henge test he got 1.5. However, Shippuu was a lot like his brother. By this, I mean he couldn't pull off a bunshin to save his life. He was only able to pull off and make one clone, just one friggin clone! Sadly, for this he was awarded a 0.5. And so the total points he got for the entire graduation exam, added up to 30.5. Of course, you know that this means he failed.

A little bit of time passed. The time to pass out the headbands as proof of true ninjahood arrived. Shippuu watched as everyone but him got their very own headbands. Iruka announced that class the next day would only be for those who graduated. School ended and he watched, alone, as almost all the other kids talked with their parents, grandparents, and siblings about their graduation.

"Hey, Mom, I did it! I'm a ninja now!"

"Grandpa, you should've been there."

"I'm very proud of you, son."

"Well, as celebration, dinner is on me."

"Well bro…you did it. And be proud of that too."

All of this made Shippuu more and more depressed. He had had it. He got off of the swing he was on and ran. And ran. He found himself at Ichiraku, the place he used to go to after being picked on. And the very place he met his brother after he failed his exam.

"Hey, Shippuu, how did your grad exams go?" asked Ayame, after noticing him standing there. After seeing the look in his eyes she said, "ummm…nevermind."

She then invited him over to the ramen hut and asked, "so, um, you wanna talk about it?"

"No. Not really."

"So…what would you like to order?"

He ordered a large bowl of miso ramen and ate like one would eat when depressed, fast. He explained the day's events to Ayame and Teuchi, who came later on.

"Ah, I see," said Teuchi, all knowingly. "Don't worry. You will definitely pass the next year. I know this because I am all knowing and wise young one. Remember, use the chakra."

"Okay, Dad, that was just plain weird."

"Sorry, just lightening up the situation."

Suddenly, a man in a chunin jacket showed up. He had blue hair tied into a ponytail. He had a mustache, too. He was wearing a blue leotard under his chunin jacket which made him seem kinda weird. Shippuu recognized him as one of the teachers at the Academy, Kensha. He then said to Shippuu, "I knew I would find you here. Come with me."

They then both went to a secluded part of the village were no one would find them. After a few moments of silence Shippuu asked, "Kensha-sensei, why did you drag me all the way out here just to talk?"

Kensha then replied, "well, it's kinda like this. I have a way for you to graduate."

"Really?!"

"Yes. All you have to do is this." Then whispering ensued. Followed by Shippuu's response.

"What!!"

_**End**_

CLIFFHANGER OF DEATH. Sorry couldn't resist. Anyway there is a significant plot device in the next chapter.

See Ya!


	4. The Method

Disclaimer: I own nothing but my creativity…

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

_Okay here I go. I'm so nervous. Waitaminnut! How the hell am I, a freakin flunkie, supposed to steal a sacred, forbidden scroll. Is Kensha-sensei nuts?_ Thought Shippuu as he silently made his way to the Hokage palace.

When he finally arrived, he checked for guards. Surprisingly, he saw no one there. Just to be careful, he went through a window instead of using a door. He looked around and…well…still saw no one.

_This is weird. No one's here. I wonder what's up. Ah well, who cares._ He thought, again (he does that surprisingly, considering who his brother is). Pushing the thought to the back of his mind he went to the forbidden library. When he was inside, he found many scrolls, at least 500. The major flaw was that they were all put into sections, and the one he was looking for was in the jutsu section. There he found about 4 scrolls. However, he had no idea which one to get, so he just took a random one. He then left the building and ran to the forest.

After a few minutes, he arrived at the forest.

"That's weird, Kensha-sensei isn't here. Oh well might as well read through the scroll. I mean I'm supposed to graduate by now."

_**Meanwhile**_

"The alarm's been set off!"

"Someone stole a scroll!"

"I have a reading! It's…Uzumaki Shippuu."

"Find him you shitheads or else we'll all be fired!"

"No! This job is all I have!"

"So find him."

"Shut up!"

_Damn it! I need to find Shippuu before anyone else can!_ thought Iruka.

Many chunin and even a jonin or two set off to find one little flunkie. And so after a few hours passed Kensha arrived at the forest where Shippuu was.

"There you are Shippuu. I forgot when we were supposed to meet."

"What kind of teacher are you!?"

"Sorry, sorry! Anyway give me the scroll."

"But what about-"

"Hold it Shippuu!" interrupted Iruka.

"Huh? Iruka-sensei! What are you doing here….oh I get it! You also knew about the graduation thing."

"What graduation thing?"

"Whoops sorry! I didn't mean to not tell you, Shippuu," said Kensha. "I lied. But you know what else you don't know."

Shippuu stared confusedly.

"It's about your brother…"

"No! Don't tell him! He's not ready! Kensha!"

"He's the container of the Kyuubi."

Shippuu felt as if someone just sucker punched him in the gut.

In the blink of an eye Shippuu ran. He ran deeper into the depths of the forest. He felt torn that his brother, or anyone for that matter, never told him any of this. He just kept running until he eventually came to a stop. He heard someone coming up behind him. He couldn't tell if it was Kensha or Iruka. He turned around and saw himself fighting Kensha.

_What?_ He thought. Then "he" turned into Iruka after being punched into a tree. Iruka threw a few shuriken at Kensha but he dodged by jumping over them. He roundhouse kicked Iruka in the face. Iruka got back up and uppercutted Kensha, who retaliated with a punch to the face. Iruka kicked Kensha into another tree. Suddenly the branch Iruka was on exploded via exploding tag. Iruka fell and landed on his back. After coughing some blood he struggled to get up. However Kensha came down with his knee up. He slammed into Iruka's ribs, crusing them. Iruka coughed up an incredible amount of blood.

"Stop it," said Shippuu.

Kensha started laughing and kicking Iruka in the side.

"Stop it!"

Kensha picked up Iruka by the collar and prepared a punch.

"STOP IT!!"

Kensha stopped mid-punch. "Huh? What do you want kid?"

"I will…kill you…if you hurt him anymore."

_**Flashback (nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo) **_

"Hey, Shippuu you want ramen?"

"All right!!"

_**Flashback 2 **_

"What am I gonna do with you. Paying attention is important, Shippuu"

"Yeah, yeah whatever, I can't afford to."

_**Flashback 3 **_

"No leaving until it's all clean. Your brother tried to paint the monument before, too."

"But he wasn't as creative as I am heeheehee."

_**Present **_

"Hurt him?" Kensha smirked. "Me? Not a chance." And on the word "chance" he kneed Iruka in the stomach.

Shippuu attacked. He punched at Kensha but he dodged smoothly and kicked Shippuu in the jaw. He then kicked Shippuu into the air. He then jumped against a tree and sped towards Shippuu. He grabbed Shippuu's face and slammed him into the ground. He then, without letting go of Shippuu's face, picked him up. He then jumped up to a high branch and let him go. Before Shippuu fell, Kensha punched him in the face, sending him flying into another tree. Shippuu's back slammed into the tree and he fell. In midair Kensha caught him by the shirt and slammed him into the trunk of another tree. At this point they were about twenty feet from the ground. He let Shippuu fall to the ground. Shippuu landed, seemingly lifeless.

"Hmph. Worthless pile of crap," said Kensha. Then he began to walk away.

"Hey…wait up…you piece of shit…" said Shippuu.

"Hm? This kid just doesn't die."

Shippuu face was covered in blood, along with his left shoulder, yet he sill got up.

"Let me show you something I learned from the scroll."

"What!? You weren't supposed to read the scroll."

"You weren't supposed to lie!"

Shippuu's chakra swelled to an incredible level. The chakra completely emcompassed his body and acted like a sort of armor.

"What the hell?"

"Like it? I call it my Chakra Yoroi no Jutsu (Chakra Armor jutsu)!"

Shippuu then jumped towards the floating Kensha with another punch prepared. He hit Kensha in the stomach. He then sent an upwards kick to Kensha's jaw. Kensha was sent flying. Shippuu then landed on the ground. He then waited for Kensha to fall into jumping range. When he did, Shippuu jumped and hit him in the stomach with his arm then kneed him in the stomach and two hand smashed him to the ground. Kensha landed and a crater with a 20 foot diameter. He then landed and waited for the dust to clear. When it did, the crater was empty.

"My Chakra Yoroi no Jutsu not only acts as an armor, but it increases all my physical abilities.

"Nice job kiddo, you did some damage. This isn't the last time you'll seeor fight me. Later. Hahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahaha," and his laughter echoed throughout the forest.

"Looks like I won…for now."

"Hey Shippuu, come here," said a barely conscious Iruka. "That's good now lean me against this tree. Good. Now close your eyes. I have a surprise fpr you."

Shippuu closed his eyes and felt something on his face and shoulder. He then felt something on his hand. He opened his eyes to find he had been cleaned and something was missing about Iruka. He then looked into his hands and saw what was missing. Iruka's headband.

"Congradualations, you're now an honest-to-goodness ninja."

"Really!? No freakin way."

"Yes freakin way. Now lets go to the hospital." _"He mastered a jutsu of that calibre in such a short amount of time. He'll surely amount to something when he grows up."_

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Another chapter done, hell yeah. We'll Kensha wil play an important role later but for now:

mangame over and out!


	5. Meeting the Team

THE NEXT DAY

"Dude, Shippuu, the hell are you doing here?" asked Hachuumaru. "Iruka-sensei said that only those who graduated can come to class."

"Can't you see the forehead protector, Hachuu?"

"I'm not even going to ask why you have one, since I hate long stories, but I am gonna ask you to move your ass, class is gonna start."

Shippuu moved aside to let Hachuummaru sit down as Iruka cleared his throat to begin class.

"Starting today, you are all real ninja. but you're merely genin, rookie ninja, a hard road lies ahead of you. Now, you will be assigned missions by the village, so today we will create three man teams each led by a jonin, an elite ninja."

"So, three man teams, huh? I'd like to be with Hachuu and…anyone besides Kouun. Somethin tells me if we're on the same team it'll cause…difficulties."

We tried to balance out each team's strength based on grades and overall performance.

10 MINUTES LATER

"Okay, now for Team 8: Shippuu Uzumaki, Tsubame Migoto, and Kouun Raiden."

"Aw crap!" thought Shippuu. "Sensei, why am I on the same team as Kouun? I thought you tried to balance the teams."

"We did, I know you and Kouun are rivals, but you were always lazy on tests remember?"

"Crap…"

"Just try not to get in my way, lazy-ass."

"What was that?"

"Hard of hearing, deaf-ass?"

"Both of you, shut the hell up!" said a girl with long hair. Her long hair was white on one side and black on they other, and split down the middle, like the tail of a swallow. She wore a black sleeveless shirt and black shorts. "God damnit, you guys are giving me a goddamn headache!"

"You damn tomboy," said another girl to Tsubame. She had pink hair that flowed down to her shoulders. She had shining chocolate colored eyes. She wore a red shirt and black pants. "How did you get on the same team as Kouun?"

"Look, I'm not even interested in the guy, Akane."

"Alright you two, settle down," said Iruka. "Now for the final team: Hachuumaru Kusuburu, Akane Kokoro, and Zenpou Sumiyaka."

"Che, now I'm with these dimwits," muttered Akane.

"Hey, I heard that!" said Hachuumaru, who just happened to be sitting next to her. "Just cuz we're not geniuses like Kouun don't mean we're not tough!"

"Speak for yourself, idiot," said a blond boy. His blond hair stood up straight and easily matched his green eyes. He wore a violet shirt and pants. "I am the child protegy of the Sumiyaki clan."

"Calm down, the lot of you," said Iruka. "Your new sensei will come this afternoon so take a quick lunch break."

HALF AN HOUR LATER

"God damnit, he's late," said Tsubame. "Everyone's already left with their senseis."

"I've got an idea," said Shippuu with a mischeivious grin. He placed an eraser between a gap in the door.

"You really think a jonin is going to fall for that? You dumbass," said Kouun.

"Tch, no need to be so cynical, Cherryhead," replied Shippuu.

Sudddenly, the door opened and the eraser fell on the head of a boy in his teens. He had slitted eyes and silver hair that went past his ears. He wore a bandana instead of a headband for his forehead protector. He had on the same jacket as Iruka did, too.

"Oh, sorry!" said Shippuu, "that was a trap set up for our sensei for being late."

"I'm sorry, should I introduce myself, my name is Sora Washi. Your new sensei."

Every person's jaw dropped straight to the floor.

"And my first impression of you guys is: you're a bunch of idiots."

LATER ON TOP OF THE ACADEMY BUILDING.

"So, let's start with some introductions. Tell me your names, likes, dislikes, hobbies, dreams, you know, stuff like that."

"Me first!' exclaimed Shippuu. "My name is Shippuu Uzumaki. I like ramen, manga, ninja battles, and the look on people's faces after I pull a prank on them. I dislike vegetables, people who dwell on the past, and people who look down on me. My hobbies are pulling pranks and training. My dream is to surpass even my brother Naruto and become a new legend, then everyone will now my name."

"Interesting." "Okay, next is the girl."

"My name is Tsubame Migoto. I like reading and not much else but I dislike lovey-dovey stuff, girly stuff, annoying people, loud things, and a whole lot of other crap like that. I have no hobbies and my dream…I don't really have one."

"So I've got a psycho-girl, too." "Next."

"My name is Kouun Raiden. I like sushi, winning, and action. I hate sour things, losing, and boring things. My hobbies are kicking Shippuu's ass and being BA. My dream is to become the greatest protigy in my clan, then I won't have to live in the shadow of my cousin anymore."

"I think I'm starting to see now. so Shippuu considers Kouun his rival, but Kouun doesn't because he already has a rival: his cousin. Well, it's to be expected, Sachi Raiden used to be his best friend until he became a ninja. And the two get into arguments a lot, so the on ewho hates loud things gets pissed and releases her fury on them. Oh god, why me?"

"Come on, sensei, introduce yourself first," said Shippuu.

"Sure, my name is Sora Washi. I'm 16 years old, and I'm the second youngest ninja to become a jonin since Kakashi Hatake. I don't have any interesting hobbies, who cares about my likes and dislikes."

"Wait, that's it?" said Shippuu.

"Well, I didn't say who had to give the information if you didn't want to."

"WAIT, SO WE JUSTED WASTED ALL THAT TIME FOR NOTHIN'!"

"Yep, pretty much. Now then we bein missions tommorrow."

"What kind of missions?"

"First a little group activity for the four of us."

"What, what?"

"Let him finish, dammit!"

"Sorry…"

"I'm gonna have my hands full with these guys…" "Our exercise is going to be survival training."

"But we did that plenty of times back at the academy," said Kouun.

"This isn't normal training," said Sora, chuckling.

"Stop keeping us in the dark, sensei. What's so damn funny?"

"Oh nothing, it's just that once I tell you this, you're gonna totally flip."

"Flip?" said Shippuu, gulping.

"Of the twenty-seven graduates, only nine will become genin. The rest go back to the Academy. This is a super difficult exam with a failure rate of over 66."

"What the hell!? Why did we even graduate in the first place then?"

"That was to select the genin candidates, this is the real deal. You'll be graded tomorrow morning at the training field. Bring all of your ninja tools, and skip breakfast, unless you like puking."

END CHAPTER

You like? Next chapter is when some of the real action begins! Yeah, don't have much to say here, so uhh byebye!


	6. True Graduation

THE NEXT DAY

Team 8 and Sora all stood in a forest clearing, the location of their survival exam.

"All right, this is where our little exercise will take place," Sora said, repeating what I just said.

"So, what'll we be doing exactly?" asked Shippuu.

"You'll be going through the traditional graduation exam. You have until noon to get these two bells from me. Each person only gets on bell and the one without a bell gets no lunch, and you'll be tied to a tree."

"_That bastard! That's why he wanted us to skip breakfast."_

"There are only two bells, so one person will be tied up, and that person fails. You can use kunai and shuriken if you want."

"Pfft, we don't want to kill you sensei," said Kouun.

"Sorry, but it seems your bark is worse than your bite so I can ignore that comment."

Kouun was really pissed off by that commment but he restrained himself from castrating the teenager.

"Well then, we'll begin in five minutes, work out any strategies you want to defeat me with. Good luck."

5 MINUTES LATER

"Now then, are you all ready?"

"Hell yeah!" exclaimed Shippuu, punching his palm.

"Yup," said Kouun smirking.

"Whatever," said a completely unenthusiastic Tsubame.

"Okay then, START!"

The three preteens scattered into the forest. Kouun was hidden in a tree, Tsubame in a bush, and Shippuu in behind a tree trunk.

"_Hm…they're all hidden well, so then you should I start with? Hm…ah! I feel a slight presence now. It's Shippuu, I guess he got a little impatient."_

Sora then jumped over to where Shippuu was. He then punched Shippuu in the face and sent him into the clearing.

"Damn, he found me," Shippuu said, taking out a few shuriken.

Shippuu threw the shuriken but Sora showed great skill in kicking each shuriken just at the right angle to deflect them.

"Holy Shit!"

Sora then disappeared and appeared behind Shippuu and punched him into a tree.

"Language, kid, language."

"D-Damn…" was all Shippuu could say before losing conciousness.

Suddenly, some shuriken came out of nowhere but Sora was able to jump over them. However, when he landed he turned around to see a windmill shuriken. His arms shot up instictively to block the shuriken. The blades of the shuriken wedged into his arm and he screamed in pain before poofing into a log.

"_Shit! He knows where I am!"_thought Tsubame. "_What a pain in the ass."_

Tsubame jumped from her hiding spot to a nearby tree to escape from her sensei. She jumped right past Kouun on her flight and made a hand motion to him.

"Good luck, Prettyboy."

"Huh?" question Kouun before noticing Sora right behind him. "Oh."

"Surprise!" Sora said punching Kouun in the face, sending him flying into another tree.

Kouun got up and jumped over to where Sora was. He tried to kick the teen but the blow was dodged. Kouun then sent a succession of punches to his sensei but Sora was able to block each punch. Sora then kicked Kouun in the chin. As the genin teetered backwards Sora punched him in the face. The punch sent Kouun off the tree and he began to fall.

"Sucker," said Kouun with a smirk.

Then an explosive tag that Kouun had set earlier exploded. The shockwave pushed Kouun down to the ground. He looked up at the tree and noticed a huge cloud of smoke. When the smoke cleared he saw that Sora was not there.

"_What the hell?" _he thought, looking for his sensei.

As he looked around, he saw that the area around him was on fire.

"_Where'd this fire come from? There's no way that explosive tag caused all this…is there?"_

However, his thoughts were cut short because the flames got stronger. The heat from the flames began to make Kouun feel dizzy. Kouun then collapsed as the flames surrounded him.

"Sorry, Kiddo," Sora said sighing, "That's two down now. That kid was pretty strong. He's gonna make a name for himself."

MEANWHILE

Shippuu finally woke up from his unconciousness. He looked around for his sensei but wasn't able to find him.

"Aw crap, how long have I been out of it?" he asked clutching his aching head. "Where's Sensei?"

Shippuu then looked for the spot where he last saw Sora and took off in that direction.

MEANWHILE

Tsubame noticed her sensei's chakra signal getting closer to her.

"_Damn that Kouun, I thought he was strong, he only kept Sensei busy that long?"_

As if on cue, Sora appeared before Tsubame.

"Well, Sensei, I guess it's good to see you. But I'm afraid I'll be taking that bell from you."

With that said, Tsubame threw a shuriken at Sora. However, the teen jumped over the shuriken just like he did before. The difference was that this time, the shuriken cut a string nearby. When the string was cut, kunai were sent from almost everywhere towards Sora.

"_He didn't honestly think that I would spend all my time just running from him, did he?"_

Sora pulled out his own kunai and deflected all of the kunai speeding towards him, even the ones that were behind him. However, he then noticed Tsubame's foot coming towards him. He ducked under the kick and Tsubame landed on a branch behind him.

"_Damn, no choice," _Tsubame thought, pulling out a scroll from her shuriken pouch.

She bit her thumb so that she drew blood, then she made a series of hand signs and wiped the blood along the scroll.

"Summoning Jutsu!"

There was a poof of smoke and two large shuriken appeared in each of Tsubame's hands, a demon windmill in her right and a regular windmill in her left. She first threw the windmill shuriken but Sora jumped over it Tsubame then charged at Sora with the demon windmill spinning very quickly in her hand.

"Shi no Kazaguruma!" (Windmill of Death)

"_Impressive, one of the powerful jutsu of the Migoto clan. Course, now isn't the time to be impressed."_

Tsubame then threw the spinning shuriken at Sora. Sora was able to dodge the giant throwing star by jumping just in the nick of time. The shuriken cut through the branch Sora was on and the branch behind it like a knife through butter.

"_Damn, I'd better end this soon, before she brings out some stronger techniques."_

Just as Sora was about to charge at Tsubame, a kunai passed in front of him. He looked to see the origin of the knife and saw that it was none other than Shippuu, who had woken up a while back.

"I hope you didn't really think you'd get rid of me that easily, Sora-_sensei_."

"To be honest, yes, I did."

"Are you underestimating me, cuz that's a big mistake."

"Big words from a little man."

This made Shippuu a little peeved and his chakra began to swell up tremendously. The chakra then closed in around him and stuck close to his body.

"Chakra Yoroi." (Chakra Armor)

"_So it's true, he really did learn the Chakra Yoroi."_

"_What the hell? When did Shippuu learn that?"_

Shippuu charged at Sora with a punch that was dodged. Shippuu sent a flurry of punches towards Sora but each one was dodged. Sora then kicked Shippuu in the face which sent him flying back into another tree. However there was no visible damage to the preteen.

"Hmph, my Chakra Yoroi—"

"Protects you from damage, I know."

"Mine is a little special though. With it activated, all my senses and physical abilities are heightened."

"That is a little special, but I don't believe you."

"Just try to keep up with me," Shippuu said, jumping away.

"Running away, huh? Not on my watch."

Sora then chased after Shippuu and there was a huge pursuit in the forest. Once Sora got within five yards of Shippuu, he called out.

"Kouun, now!"

The hidden Kouun made a hand sign and Sora, sensing danger stopped. However, he was too late in noticing that he was lead into a trap of exploding tags. Each of the tags detonated and created a huge explosion. But when Shippuu and Kouun inspected the spot they noticed that there was only a burnt log.

"Too bad, huh?" said Tsubame, who had shown up after the explosion.

"Tsubame, we learned the true meaning behind the test."

"Teamwork, right?" asked Tsubame.

"Wait, when did you figure it out?"

"Back when I was fighting Sora. I noticed that there was no way I could beat him on my own so I used you as a diversion. You could call that teamwork in a way."

"Seems more like you ditched me."

"Anyway, the test was set up to make us fight each other so we wouldn't see the true meaning behind the test."

"So we would only focus on the bells and not on each other."

"So even if one of us got a bell, we would probably be failed anyway."

Sora then appeared in front of them and said, "So you guys figured it out, huh? And with five minutes to spare. I overheard you guys talking and it seems you understand the meaning behind the test."

"Teamwork."

"That's right. Teamwork is the most important thing to a ninja and that is why you were all put into squads of three. And know that you have this knowledge I am proud to say that the three of you pass."

"Seriously?" asked Shippuu.

"Yes, you all are now officially ninja."

"Hell Yes!!!" cried out Shippuu.

"Alright," said Kouun.

And Tsubame just smirked.

"Now get some sleep because we start going on missions tomorrow."

END CHAPTER

Whew that one was a lot longer than the previous few chapters. And um… stay tuned.

BYE-BYE


	7. Ninja Mission

A FEW DAYS LATER

Team 8 was in the Hokage mansion to report on their latest mission. They had just finished babysitting, walking dogs, grocery shopping, picking vegetables, and of course cathcing that dumb cat Tora.

"So you successfully walked all of Shibuki-san's dogs," said Tsunade. "Shizune, what is their next mission?"

"Well, now they need to help catch a pervert who was checking out girls at the hotsprings."

"No," said Shippuu.

"Excuse me?"

"_Oh, God, here it comes."_

"These missions you're giving us really suck bigtime. Can't we have some better missions?"

"_I have to agree with him," _thought Kouun.

"You little punk, there's actually a systme to nwork with this. Missions are divided based on difficulty. As new recruits, you are doing D-rank missions. Once you become more experienced or become chunin you'll go on C-rank missions. Then once you become jonin you'll go on B and A-rank missions. Got it?"

"Yeah but—"

"No but's Shippuu Uzumaki."

"But, Lady Hokage, Shippuu does have a point," said Kouun. "These missions aren't adding to our experience as ninja, plus aren't the Chunin Exams soon?"

"So you want, experience, huh? Fine then, you'll see exactly how tough it is to go on a C-rank mission."

"Sweet," Shippuu said, giving Kouun a thumbs up.

"You'll be delivering something to a foreign land."

"What kind of of delivery? Some kind of secret document?" asked Kouun.

"This is a C-rank dipshit," relied Tsubame.

"You could say that it's a secret document. It's actually the manuscript for the story of a famous writer. It needs to be delivered to Koori no Kuni (the Land of Ice)."

"Why can't this writer go on his own?"

"Because something has come up and he's gotten sick. He can't make the journey but he has reached his deadline. So he has hired us to deliver the document. This mission in C-ranked because you will be on a journey to a different country. Good luck."

LATER

The four ninja stood at the Konoha gate and prepared to leave on their "great" adventure to the Land of Ice.

The ninja checked to see if they had all of their gear and then set off to make their deliery.

A FEW HOURS LATER

Our heroes were walking through the forest on a trail in silence.

"So sensei, have you ever been to this Land of Ice?" asked Kouun, breaking the silence.

"Actually yes, it's a nice place but you'll be glad I told you to pack your scarves. The Land of Ice gets its name because it's located in an icy valley, where it is always winter. Don't get me wrong, it's a very nice place and very quaint."

"Do they have any ninja there?"

"Actually no, you see not many people know about the Land of Ice because it was created recently, plus it is almost impossible to access due to being surrounded by ice. And finally it neighbors two villages that have ninja so it can just hire from those two."

"I see."

"Hold up guys," commanded Tsubame. "I hear something moving."

The procession of ninja stopped moving to check out their surroundings. Sure enough they could definitely hear someone, or something, moving. Just then a really big guy jumped out of a bush behind them and grabbed Sora.

"What the—" Sora started before being interrupted by the sound of his ribs cracking under the big guy's bear hug.

"Sora-sensei!" Shippuu called after seeing Sora fall limply.

"A sneak attack? That's no fair!" commented Kouun.

"This coming from someone who's supposedto be a ninja," retorted Tsubame. "Anyway let's take these guys down."

"You talk like there's a whole group of them," said Shippuu.

Then a bunch of very scruffy looking people jumped out from all around them and had them surrounded.

Kouun shot a sarcastic look at Shippuu who responded by telling him to "shut his piehole".

"Let's get 'em boys!" one of the punks shouted.

The three genin got on the defensive to not end up dead like their sensei. As one of the thugs jumped at Shippuu he was knocked away by the preteen's foot. Attacks like this continued until evenually only four of the bandits were left.

"Hey, hey, Mugi, Tako, Mame, things ain't lookin' good here," said one of the punks who had a bandana wrapped around his head.

"No worries, Momen, we're the strongest here," said the big one, Tako.

Mugi, who was bald, attacked Kouun with a punch, however the preteen dodged the blow. Kouun then kicked the punk into Mame, who had a scar over his right eye. The two punks were knocked into a tree and fell unconcious.

"Crap, Tako, go nuts!"

Tako's eyes rolled back into their sockets and he went berserk. He charged at the three heroes but they all jumped out of the way. He turned around and charged at Tsubame. Tsubame threw a few shuriken at him. The shuriekn connected to the big man but he continued to charge at her. However he was intercepted by Shippuu's fist. Shippuu expected him to fall back but it seemed as though his bulk absorbed the impact of Shippuu's punch. He was then about to grab Shippuu but he was sucker punched by Sora.

"Sora-sensei, how are you…"

"What, you didn't really think I was that weak did you? I did a replacement jutsu, I had already sensed those guys hiding."

As Tako fell to the ground unconcious, Momen asked, "Why did you let these kids fight then?"

"Well, I wanted to test them to see what they would do in case of a real fight. Frankly, I'm impressed at their growth. But I digress, you're going down, too, you know."

"Not if I have anything to say about it!" Momen yelled, throwing a smoke bomb.

Sora then disapperaed and reappeared about ten seconds later holding Momen in his arm.

"Did you…"

"No, he's still alive. I wouldn't kill an innocent person just like that."

"_Innocent my ass," _thought Shippuu and Kouun.

"Anyway, they'll all be unconcious for about a day. Let's keep going though."

"Sensei, what's the real reason you let us fight?" asked Tsubame.

"So you could tell?" asked Sora.

"That was a definite lie, judging from how well I know you, you wouldn't give us training that is _that_ reckless."

"The real reason was to see if they were hired to take away the document or if it was just a random attack. If it were a random attack then we could continue but if they were hired then they would have to send a ninja next and we would be forced to go back to make this a B-rank mission."

"So based on what you were saying before, I'm guessing the mission is still on?" asked Kouun.

"Yes, Kouun it is, but that's probably the most excitement that you will have on this mission."

"Alright what are we waiting for!? Let's get going!" called Shippuu.

"_That big guy, there was something strange about him. An ability to go berserk like that…I haven't seen a move like that in a long time. He must have been an ex-ninja of about chunin rank or a ninja exiled from his clan. It's probably nothing to worry about but still…I have a bad feeling about this."_

ELSEWHERE IN AN ABANDONED TOWN

"What did you just say!?"

"Mome and his group have been defeated, sir."

"Are they dead?"

"We don't know."

"This calls for revenge, send in the Executioners."

"Are you sure about this, sir?"

"Are you questioning my authority?"

"No, sir, Daisuke-sama."

BACK TO OUR HEROES ABOUT A DAY LATER

Our four ninja were at a picnicking area by a huge waterfall with a gorgeous view of a meadow below it that gradually became a tundra.

"Alright guys, let's take a little break, we're close to the border between the Land of Fire and the Land of Ice. More than half of our journey is done already."

"So Kouun, what kind of food did you pack with you?" asked Shippuu.

"Just a couple soldier pills. Why, did you forget your own food or something?"

"Nah, it's just that I only packed soldier pills, too. I was looking for something with flavor."

"You guys are being babies, just eat the damn food and stop complaining," snapped Tsubame.

"Someone woke up on the wrong side of—"

"Shut up Kouun! Do no invoke her rage, man! She friggin scares me."

"To be honest, me too…but…I kinda like that."

"…"

"…What?"

"…Freak."

"Damnit Shippuu, I'll kill you!"

"Shut the hell up already!"

"Sorry Tsubame," the two "intrepid" preteens said, cowering in fear.

"Breaktime's over guys!" _"Man, I have my hands full with these kids."_

The four ninja began to pack up but a kunai came out of a nearby tree. Shippuu was able to dodge the kunai, which was aimed at him, and threw his own. Then a ninja from Takigakure came out and attacked them.

He had long, shaggy black hair that reached his hips, an unzipped blue zip-up shirt, black pants, and bandages wrapped around his ankles.

"Get ready to die!" he said to them.

END CHAPTER

Ooooooooo a new foe, and this time it's a ninja. find out what happens next time okay by staying tuned, okay?


	8. Combat

"Alright guys! Get in a defensive position! He might not be alone!"

"But Sensei—"

"Don't worry about me! I'll take this guy on!"

The Takigakure ninja attacked the group but Sora was able to intercept him. He punched the ninja away but he landed on his feet.

"_This guy is at least a chunin," _thought Sora, pulling out a kunai.

Sora then charged at the ninja, who pulled out his own kunai. The sound of metal clashed and reverberated throughout the forest. Panicked people in the picnic area then ran out of the area in fear. The two ninja continued to clash kunai for a little while until Sora's kunai was knocked out of his hand. Sora then made a few hand seals ending in Snake.

"Doton: Dorodangan (Earth Style: Mud Bullet)!"

Sora then spat out some mud, which hardened in mid flight. The bullets of mud collided with the Taki ninja and sent him flying backwards. However he landed on his feet. But Sora was quick to take action. With incredible speed he made his was to where the ninja had landed and kicked him in the face. The ninja slammed against a nearby tree and just as Sora was about to go in for the finish another kunai came out of the trees.

"Damn, another one?"

Then this new Taki ninja attacked the genin. He had short, shaggy blonde hair, a black shirt, baggy black pants, and a scar across his left cheek.

Kouun took the initiative to attack their attacker. He was able to dodge the ninja's punch and throw his own. His punch was easily blocked and he was kicked away by the ninja. As Shippuu caught him, Tsubame threw a few shuriken at him. The Taki ninja dodged the stars and threw a few of his own shuriken at the genin. Tsubame deflected the shuriken with a kunai.

"Yaiba, let's use our combination technique," said the first ninja, jumping over to where his partner was.

"Sure thing Toku!"

Toku then went over a long series of hand seals while Yaiba did the same but with a different series of hand seals.

"Suiton: Suikodan no Jutsu (Water Style: Water Shark Bomb)!"

"Raiton: Gian (Lightning Style: False Darkness)!"

A shark made of water rose from the waterfall nearby and Yaiba fired a spear of electricity at the shark and the water shark became electrically charged.

"This is why we are the ultimate team," said Toku.

"Our combination is the ultimate jutsu, because water is a conductor of electricity our jutsu are all unstoppable," finished Yaiba.

"_Damn, not only is that Water Shark charged with electricity, it's also much bigger than usual. He must have a lot of chakra."_

"Toku, kill the older one first! He must be the leader!"

"No problem! Suiton: Denkisame (Water Style: Electric Shark)!"

The electrically charged shark charged at Sora, who dodged the giant fish. However the shark adjusted its itinerary to catch up to the teenage jonin.

"No way! A homing jutsu?" called Kouun.

"_This guy is strong, he's pulling of a homing jutsu, something very difficult, all on his own," _thought Tsubame.

"_Damn, I have no choice then," _thought Sora.

Sora then stopped running away from the electric shark and made a one handed Tora seal and but he was too late and the giant shark crashed into him.

"_Crap, this time he wasn't able to do a replacement jutsu," _thought Tsubame.

"Nice job Toku, now then, let's kill the kids!"

The two Taki ninja then prepared to attack the three genin but they were stopped when Yaiba was kicked in the face. It turns out that the attacker was Sora, whose usually slitted eyes were now fully open. His irises were almost white save for a slight grey tint.

"_What the hell?" _thought Shippuu.

"_Is this a…Kekkei Genkai?" _thought Tsubame

"Are you ready for this?" asked Sora.

"What the hell, how did you survive my attack?" asked Toku.

"With my Kekkei Genkai I can see the path of chakra."

"No way, are you part of the Washi Clan?" asked Yaiba.

"Yup."

"So you have the Bunsekigan (Analysis Eye)?"

"That's right, and with it I could tell that both of you were controlling that jutsu."

"But how come it didn't kill you?"

"Because, this eye can analyze any jutsu it sees and can see its weak points. I just saw where the jutsu would be taken apart and destroyed it."

"Just who the hell are you?"

"My name is Sora Washi."

"Impossible, Sora of the Mind's Eye?"

"Yeah that's me."

"Damn, Yaiba we need to retreat, this guy is way too strong!" Toku called, jumping over to where Yaiba was.

The two Taki ninja then jumped away and Kouun tried to pursue them but he was stopped by Sora.

"Stop, it's not worth it. Let them go for now. They'll be back soon enough."

"So Sensei, just what the heck did you just do? And what's with those eyes of yours?"

"It's called a Kekkei Genkai. They are passed down through blood among some ninja clans. Mine is a doujutsu (eye technique) that can see the path of chakra and analyze jutsu. This Kekkei Genkai has another feature to it that is a little vexing. My Kekkei Genkai causes blindness over a steady course of a few years after first awakening it. That is why my eyes are lke this, I'm practicing how to not use my eyes for when I become blind."

The three genin could only stare in awe at their sensei, whom they never thought was so powerful.

"Anyway, it seems like we'll be left alone for a while so let's get going and deliver this story."

LATER IN AN ABANDONED VILLAGE

"You're telling me that even you guys were defeated?"

"Yes sir, Daisuke-sama," said Yaiba.

"We're terribly sorry," added Toku.

"Even you guys, who are former chunin from Takigakure were defeated. Looks like I'll have to do this on my own."

"We must warn you that Sora of the Mind's Eye is there."

"Sounds intereseting," said Daisuke licking his lips, then leaving the shadowy building they were in. "You two come as well."

"Is he sure he's not being reckless again?" Toku asked his partener.

"Well, he is a former jonin of Amegakure."

MEANWHILE WITH OUR HEROES

Our heroes, all wearing scarves and gloves, came to a large icy valley in a massive blizzard.

"Alright, we're here guys," said Sora.

"I can't see anything but white," commented Shippuu.

"Just follow the sound of my voice," said Sora.

The four ninja continued to walk forward about 20 feet when Sora tapped of the snowy ground three times and a trap door opened. The four ninja then fell into a chute that continued for about ten seconds before spitting them out onto a snow pile in a village.

"Now, we're here."

"Well that was fun," said Shippuu.

The village was surrounded by an icy valley and it was very cold, plus visibility was low due to the blizzard, which likely contributed to the fat that the streets were empty.

"Let's go to an inn until this blizzard blows over," said Sora.

The shinobi then trudged through the snow to the closest inn. It was a pretty cozy place.

"Welcome travellors," said the innkeeper. "This storm isn't going to end until tomorrow morning. You can stay here for free, don't want any dead people on my conscience."

NOON THE NEXT DAY

The blizzard had now passed over and it was a sunny day in the Land of Ice. The sunlight bounced off the icy walls creating a rainbow over the village.

"So, just where is this publisher guy?" asked Kouun.

"He should be around here somewhere… ah, here's the place."

Sora knocked on the door of the house they stopped at and a short old man stepped up to meet them.

"Who are you?" asked the old man.

"Are you Korobu?" asked Sora.

"Yes, that's me."

"We are here to deliver the manuscript for Jikan's story."

"Oh, just in time! His deadline was today you know. Thank you very much."

The old man then bade them farewell.

LATER

"So guys, you ready for a little break?" asked Sora.

"A break? Won't Lady Hokage get a little angry at that?" asked Kouun.

"We'll just tell her that we were snowed in for a little while."

"So what'll we be doing Sensei?" asked Tsubame.

"We'll be training of course."

"That doesn't sound like a break to me," Shippuu commented. "Why the sudden change of pace?"

"Well, you remember those ninja we fought before, right? Those guys were way stronger than you guys and what would you do if something happened to me? You guys need to get stronger."

"So what kind of training will we be doing?" inquired Shippuu with a hint of excitement.

"It's pretty simple, you'll try to walk up the walls of the valley."

"Those walls are way too steep to go hiking, Sensei," Kouun said.

"That's why you'll be using chakra."

"Huh?" Kouun and Shippuu asked in unison.

"You'll be gathering chakra to the bottom of your feet in order to stick to the tree. The bottom of the foot is also the hardest point to gather chakra. So this is an exercise in chakra control. By learning how to control your chakra perfectly you can use more powerful jutsu and use them more often. Now then, is that all perfectly clear?"

"Yessir!"

"The second point is to gain the stamina that you'll need in battle. When a ninja is in combat he of she is constantly in motion and gathering chakra so you'll need a crapload of stamina. Got it?"

"Yes sir, Sora-sensei!"

"Well, get started already!"

END CHAPTER

Not much to say here but I'm making good progress, I'm about ¼ done with what I had planned out originally.


	9. The Land of Ice

The three genin charged their chakra to their feet and took off running to the side of the valley. Shippuu didn't release enough chakra and slipped off the tree almost immediately. Tsubame did fine for a little while but she couldn't keep restraining her chakra and used too much and after about five meters the tree rejected her. Kouun made his way about twice as far as Tsubame before slipping off.

"_So it seems that Kouun, Shippuu's rival has the best chakra control, while Shippuu has the worst. And, as usual, Tsubame is just stuck between their rivalry," _thought Sora.

"Alright guys, your target is that ledge, where that watchtower is located. It is approximately thirty meters high," said the teenager. "You'll have these kunai to mark your progress."

The three genin each took out a kunai then repeated what they had done before, Shippuu made a little bit of progress, this time falling off at about three meters. Tsubame ran up to about seven meters before slipping off due to not using enough chakra. Kouun then made it to about twelve meters before falling off again.

A FEW HOURS LATER

"Okay guys, break time," called Sora.

Shippuu's progress was horrible, his highest mark was only at about seven meters. Tsubame had been making fair progress, with her highest mark at about twelve meters. Kouun's chakra control was the best of the group as he was resting at the ledge which was their goal.

"Whew, finally, I was getting bored," said Kouun walking down the wall.

"Show-off," said Shippuu, panting for breath.

ELSEWHERE

"Daisuke-sama, I hear that those ninja are in the Land of Ice."

"Good, good, that's a three day trip from here. Tell Toku and Yaiba to pack up their stuff immediately, we're going on a little trip."

ONE DAY LATER

"Okay guys, you have five days to complete this assignment, then we need to go back," said Sora. "Kouun, you can stick with me and supervise their training."

For the rest of the day, Shippuu and Tsubame continued to do the training exercise. As usual, Shippuu had little progress only making it to about ten meters. Tsubame was also a little slower today making only fifteen meters.

THE NEXT DAY

Shippuu walked over to Tsubame and asked her, "Hey, you're pretty good at this, could you give me a little advice?"

"Sure, but I'll only say this once. When you mold your chakra, where do you envision your chakra's location in your mind?"

"I guess around my mid-section, why?"

"What helps for me is to actually picture my feet. That way my focus is truly on my feet and not anywhere else."

"Good idea, thanks so much, Tsubame. Oh and one more thing."

"What?"

"Please don't tell Kouun or Sora-sensei about this."

"Sure."

A FEW HOURS LATER

Sora and Kouun came back from their lunch break to find Shippuu and Tsubame both sitting on top of the ledge that they were supposed to be on.

"Alright guys, now that you've completed the training, we have a few day to just stick around and have fun."

"Nice!"

NOON THE NEXT DAY

"Hey, Sora-sensei, can I have a little bit of 'extra training'?" asked Shippuu.

"Sure, what kind of training do you have in mind?"

"I want to spar."

"With me?"

"No with Kouun. It's time for me to catch up to him, I'm at six wins, seven losses, and two draws."

"I'm up for it," said Kouun. "Sensei, could you referee us?"

"Fine. But let's take this to somewhere private so these innocent people don't get hurt."

The ninjas then went to the ledge from before and asked some of the guards if they could fight there to which they gave consent.

"You ready, Shippuu?"

"Hell yeah, Kouun!"

"Then I'll start!" said Kouun, charging at Shippuu.

The red hair threw a punch but Shippuu dodged it. Before Kouun could pull his arm back, Shippuu grabbed his wrist and tossed him over his shoulder. Kouun landed on his feet but Shippuu was quick in going on the offensive again. Kouun charged at him, too. As the two prepared to punch each other a huge explosion occurred in the village.

"What the hell was that?" wondered Shippuu out loud.

"Sounds like an attack on the village," said Tsubame.

"Guys you'll need to call off your fight, I looks like those guys from before might be back."

"Damn, another draw."

The four ninja ran down the ledge and quickly made their way to where the explosion occurred. Sure enough, the ones who attacked the village were the two ninja from before and a new ninja from Amegakure. He was tall, about six-three. He was fairly muscular and he wore a white jacket with blue flames on it. He also had black pants.

"See boys, I told you a loud enough welcoming would bring them here."

"Daisuke-sama, I think that was a little uncalled for," said Yaiba.

"Ah, don't worry about it, we'll be fine."

"Alright you guys, stop where you are!" called Sora.

"So you must be Sora of the Mind's Eye, huh? You're a lot younger than I had originally expected."

"And you must be Daisuke Hoshoku, the former mercenary from Amegakure, who left after the civil war started."

"Pleased to make your acquaintance," he said charging at Sora.

"You guys take down the two Taki ninja!" ordered Sora, charging at Daisuke.

Daisuke kicked at Sora but the teenager ducked under. Sora then jumped up and kicked Daisuke in the chest. The tall man was sent flying backwards but he managed to land on his feet.

"Interesting, but that won't be enough to defeat me!"

Daisuke then made a series of hand seals and fired a blast of wind at Sora. However the teen made his own series of seals and used a Doton: Doryuheki (Earth Style: Mud Wall). The pillar of earth blocked the wind blast.

"_Damn, he's too strong," _thought Sora. _"I'll have to use the Bunsekigan."_

"Ooooh, now this is getting interesting, I might just have to use my full power on you," said Daisuke after noticing that Sora opened his eyes.

"Even if you win, you'll be weakened and have to take on my subordinates."

"And what makes you so sure that your kids could defeat my soldiers?"

"Because, Kouun is a smart tactician and strong in combat, Shippuu has the most flexible fighting style I've seen in a genin, and Tsubame is definitely the strongest of the group!"

"Interesting!" the ex-jonin called, charging at the teenager.

Meanwhile, in a separate area near a fountain, our favorite three genin were having trouble fighting the two chunin from Takigakure. Tsubame threw a few shuriken at Yaiba, who used a replacement jutsu to avoid damage. Toku then charged at Shippuu with a punch. The genin charged with his own punch, but his reach was not far enough and Toku's fist connected, sending Shippuu flying back.

"Damn, these guys are too strong!" called out Shippuu.

"Let's just finish these kids off already, Yaiba!" called Toku, making a series of hand seals. "Suiton: Suikodan!"

"Sure thing," called Yaiba with his own seals. "Raiton: Gian!"

"Suiton: Denkisame!" the two called out in unison.

"Crap!" called out Shippuu.

"We're screwed, Sensei had to use a Kekkei Genkai to stop that jutsu!"

"Not so fast," said Tsubame, using a summoning scroll to summon a demon wind shuriken.

As the shark began to charge at the genin, Tsubame used her chakra to spin the giant shuriken. She then used her Shi no Kazaguruma (Windmill of Death). The super-powered shuriken cut right through the water shark, dispatching the jutsu.

"_Nice thinking, that's my girl," _thought Kouun. _"I better help out."_

Kouun made a series of hand seals and called out, "Raiton: Denki Sesshoku (Lightning Style: Electric Contact)!"

A small amount of electricity formed in Kouun's palm, he then threw the electricity in the form of a ball and made it collide with the giant shuriken. The shuriken then became electrically charged.

"_Have a taste of your own medicine,"_ thought Kouun with a smirk.

"_This time he did it with his whole hand, even when he does it with one finger it can make you numb for a while," _thought Shippuu.

The shuriken's trajectory was a little bit too low so it wedged itself in the ground between the two ninja. Electricity coursed through the ground and electrocuted the two ninja. The Taki ninjas then became numb and fell to the ground.

"_That won't be enough to finish them," _thought Tsubame.

Sure enough Yaiba stood back up and said, "You kids are pretty interesting. But you'll be dead soon!"

He then charged at Kouun with a punch. Kouun blocked the punch and attempted to deliver a kick to Yaiba's face. Yaiba caught Kouun's foot and punched him in the gut. The genin then fell to his knees. Shippuu then activated his Chakra Yoroi and attacked the Taki ninja. However the long haired ninja dodged his punch and there was a crater where he was.

"_Why do this kids have such strong powers?"_

The three genin then regrouped and slightly huddled.

"Guys I have an idea, keep him distracted, I'll be the one to start off the plan, got it?"

"Sure thing."

Kouun then charged at Yaiba with a punch. The chunin dodged the blow and then kicked Kouun in the jaw. A little bit of blood trickled out of Kouun's mouth.

Kouun wiped the blood off his chin and said, "Guys now!"

Tsubame and Shippuu charged at Yaiba as Kouun jumped over the chunin. The Taki ninja instinctively turned around to see his original foe and was punched in the back by the two genin. Shippuu reactivated his Chakra Yoroi and Tsubame prepared another Shi no Kazaguruma. Shippuu charged at Yaiba while Toku began to stand up again. However Toku was dispatched by Kouun, who used another Denki Sesshoku. Shippuu attempted a few punches but they were barely dodged. Yaiba then kicked Shippuu aside only to see Tsubame's Shi no Kazaguruma coming his way.

"Shippuu, knock him into the fountain!" called Kouun.

Shippuu then jumped up after the Taki ninja and used his enhanced strength to smash Yaiba into the fountain. The Taki ninja was then electrocuted because Kouun had already used a Denki Sesshoku on the water there.

"My apologies, Daisuke-sama…"

"Whew, we pulled it off," sighed Kouun.

"Nice plan, just what I'd expected from my rival!" called Shippuu landing on the ground.

Tsubame just sat down and took a relaxing sigh of relief.

Meanwhile, the battle between the two jonin was reaching its climax. Both were tired and covered with wounds.

"_Damn, for such a big person he moves so fast, and he knows that my Kekkei Genkai doesn't work on taijutsu…"_

"_Shoot, this kid is strong for his age and I can't use any ninjutsu."_

"I can't believe those kids defeated my men. Once I finish with you I'll get revenge for Toku and Yaiba by killing those kids!"

"Not if I can help it!"

Sora and Daisuke both pulled out kunai and charged at each other. The sound of clashing metal echoed. The two ninja then dashed backwards and threw their kunai. The blades crashed and bounced off each other.

"_I'll have to end this now, with my ultimate jutsu,"_ thought Sora, making a few hand seals. Katon: Shukuyuu (no actual translation, actually the name of the Chinese god of fire: Zhu Rong)!"

Sora spat out some fire and it took the form of a huge tiger. The tiger charged at Daisuke with incredible speed. The tiger collided with the ex-jonin, causing a huge explosion of flame.

Sora then closed his eye, thereby deactivating his Kekkei Genkai, after seeing Daisuke's scorched and burnt body.

"Looks like you guys have finished cleaning up here."

"Yup, and it's all thanks to that training you gave us."

"You did well for your first true ninja battle, so you've earned the next few days of rest. No go and have some fun!"

"Yes sir! Sora-sensei!"


	10. New Rivals and Arrivals

Man, this is a pretty short chapter.

MANY DAYS LATER

"Shippuu you idiot, you were supposed to go left!"

"But there was a wounded squirrel, you expect me to just run over it?"

"There was no damn squirrel there!"

"Yes there was damn it!"

"Both of you are giving me a damn headache!"

"But, Tsubame-chan—"

"That's enough guys," sighed Sora. "What's done is done, the race is over."

As Sora said, Team Eight's latest mission was to fill in for a marathon runner and win a race. Shippuu was selected due to his greater stamina. However, as he was winning an injured squirrel got in his way, and, being as kind hearted as he is, he took the squirrel and moved it but during that time, the person behind him crossed the finish line.

"You made us fail the mission!"

"Shut the hell up already!"

"Well, I'll let you guys resolve things here, I've got to go," said Sora after noticing a messenger hawk.

"I'm going, too," said Tsubame after seeing Sora poof away. "You guys really suck."

"Wait! Tsubame-chan!" called Kouun.

"_Damn it, I've told him before, I'm not into that lovey-dovey shit. He's been even more forward ever since we came back from the Land of Ice."_

Kouun tried to chase after Tsubame when he heard a voice from nearby.

"Ah, kids in love. What a disturbing sight."

Kouun turned around to find the source of the voice only to learn it came from behind him. The source of the voice was a sand ninja who was around seventeen.

"That's not really nice Yama-kun," said his male teammate, who was shorter than him and had a huge shuriken on his back.

"Yamamaru, you shouldn't say such things, you used to be like that, too," said his female companion, who had short, red hair and a mantle.

"Shut the hell up, Kabuki, I don't care about being nice! And you too, Haruna, that was a long time ago!"

"_What the hell are ninja from Sunagakure doing here?" _thought Shippuu, who saw the action from behind.

"You guys must be here for the Chunin Exams," said Kouun.

"Right on kid," said Yamamaru. "You're smart but I still don't like you. So you're gonna die."

"H-Hey, hold up Yama-kun. You kill them now, at least wait for the exam!"

"I don't give a shit!" he yelled, charging at Kouun.

However he was intercepted by a fist from a stranger. This stranger had long blue hair and bangs that went down a far as her chest, which was abnormally large for her body size and a Kusagakure forehead protector.

"WHAT THE FUCK IS UP WITH THIS LOLI-GIRL!?" called out Yamamaru after noticing her breasts.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU THINKING YOU PERVERT!? I'M FIFTEEN DAMN IT! I'M JUST A LITTLE SHORT FOR MY AGE!"

"Damn it, just a bunch of freaks here, I'm out. Let's go guys."

"_One minute he wants to kill a kid, the next he wants to leave? Man, for the five years I've been on his team I've never figured him out!" _thought Kabuki.

"Sorry about that, but I can't resist a fight. My name is Sayuu and…" she began until she noticed Shippuu and Kouun staring at her breasts. "YOU DAMN PERVERTS!" she yelled slapping them both in the cheek and sending them flying away a ridiculous distance.

The two hormone packed boys started rubbing their incredibly swollen cheeks.

"YOU CRAZY LOLI-KID! THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU? TAKE OUT THE DAMN PILLOWS!" yelled Kouun.

"PILLOWS! YOU ASSHOLE, THESE ARE 100% REAL! AND WHO THE HELL ARE YOU CALLING A KID, I'M THREE YEARS OLDER THAN YOU!"

"REAL MY ASS! HOW CAN SOMETHING SO HUGE GO ON SOMEONE SO SMALL!?" yelled Shippuu.

"AT LEAST WHAT I HAVE IS BIG! UNLIKE YOU TWO!"

"YOU BITCH! HOW DARE YOU MAKE SUCH A VULGAR ACCUSATION!" the two genin called in unison.

"_They forgot to deny it…" _thought Tsubame.

"HOW DARE YOU CALL ME SUCH THINGS!" called Sayuu.

"_Once again you forgot to deny it…"_

Sayuu then slapped the two boys repeatedly at an incredibly fast rate and when she eventually stopped their faces were completely swollen, as if they had stuffed their heads into a bee hive and had an allergic reaction.

Tsubame just put her hand to her forehead and thought, _"Why me?"_

"For God's sake, are all boys goddamn perverts?" Sayuu said. "Anyway, I hope to see you at the Chunin Exams, my friends."

"_This is just way too weird," _thought Tsubame. _"When the hell did we become friends?"_

MEANWHILE AT THE JONIN MEETING PLACE

"Sora Washi, I'd like to ask about your genin team," said Tsunade. "Do you think they are ready for the Chunin Exams?"

"I, Sora Washi, as the squad leader for Team Eight, hereby proclaim that I believe that my team is ready for the Chunin Selection Exam."

"Are you absolutely sure about that?" asked the Hokage.

"You know that I'm dead serious about my decision, Tsunade-sama."

"Indeed. Then your Team Eight will take the Chunin Selection Exam."

THE NEXT DAY

"Ah, Sora-sensei, what kind of lame-ass mission are we doing today?" asked Kouun.

"Seriously Sensei, these missions suck big time," continued Shippuu.

"Actually, today is a special day. In just one week you guy will be taking the Chunin Exams. I believe that you are ready and something tells me that at least one of you will become a chunin. Now train hard and in one week you'll go to classroom 301 at the Academy.

END CHAPTER

Well that was short and sweet. And a very…interesting chapter. Anyway a new saga is about to begin so fasten your seatbelts for the Chunin Exams!


	11. Before the Exam

Well, I was wondering why the last chapter was so short, and I finally realized. It's because I had had this planned this out for the previous chapter but I forgot to write it in. Damn!

Disclaimer: Ah! Screw it!

Shippuu was sitting at his favorite restraunt, Ichiraku Ramen, having a bowl of prok ramen.

"_Damn, it seems like only yesterday that I met Naruto. But now isn't a time to be nostalgic, I need to finish up here so I can train for my next mission."_

LATER THAT DAY

Shippuu walked by and saw Team Asuma on the street with a familiar face on the nearby roof.

"It's fine Choji. Damn this is such a pain," said Shikamaru with his hand on his head.

"Shikamaru! Choji! Ino! Is that who I think it is?" called Shippuu.

"Huh, Shippuu, it's you?" replied Choji.

"That person on the roof, could it be?"

"Huh, is that Shippuu?" asked the person on the roof.

"…Naruto," said Shippuu.

"…Shippuu," said Naruto, jumping down from the building. "How the hell've you been?"

"Naruto! _Where_ the hell've you been? And when did you get back?"

"I got back almost a week and a half ago. I woul've seen you sooner but you were on a mission and I just got back from one.

"This is freakin awesome!"

"Sorry, but I can't really hang out now."

"How come?"

"Because, I'm looking for recruits for the new Team Kakashi. I've got a new mission to do and we're two people short."

"Aw, man. So we can't hang out. Well, maybe for a little bit."

"Nice!"

MEANWHILE, AT KOUUN'S HOUSE

Kouun threw a punch at the teenager that was facing him in combat. However, the teen dodged the punch with ease.

"You're a little slow, Kouun," the teen said.

The teenager had orange hair that stuck straight up vertically. He wore a red sleeveless shirt with an unzipped flak jacket and black pants. His black headband was wrapped around his right bicep.

"I'll show you whose slow, Haru-niisan!"

Kouun then dashed at Haru with a fast flurry of punches, however they were easily evaded by the teen. Haru then threw an elbow at Kouun's face. Kouun reeled back in pain. He brought his hand up to his nose to stop its bleeding. Haru then did a spin kick that connected with Kouun's face. The preteen then spun in the air and landed with his face in the dirt.

"_Damn it!"_ thought Kouun, springing back up to his feet. _"At least I finally get to spend time together with my cousin."_

Kouun then kicked at Haru but the teenager grabbed his leg with ease. Haru then spun Kouun around and threw him a good distance. Kouun landed in the clan's koi pond, sat up, and spit out the water that had gotten in his mouth.

"Alright boys, that's enough for today," said a tall man with blonde hair down to his waist. "Kouun, don't spit into the koi pond, I don't think that the fish want your saliva in their pond."

"Okay, Father."

MEANWHILE AT TSUBAME'S HOUSE

Tsubame was talking to a tall man with spikey white hair dressed in a white robe. He had turquois colored eyes and a small mustache.

"So then, Tsubame, I hear that you're going to be taking the Chunin Selection Exam."

"Yes, Father."

"That's good. If you succeed then you'll be one step closer to taking over as head of the clan. However, you should also realize that your brother will be taking the exam, too.

"_Oh, crap."_

"I want you to be careful though, you know how your brother can get. And I can't have my cute little daughter dying on me."


	12. Start! The Chunin Selection Exam!

DAYS LATER AT SHIPPUU'S HOUSE

"Ah, nothin' like a good breakfast to start off the day!" said Shippuu, finishing his cereal.

Shippuu put on his regular clothes and went to set out.

LATER AT THE ACADEMY

A large group of ninjas, including our favorite trio, were standing in front of Room 301. However, two genin were blocking the way. One of them had a lazy face, was wearing a gray jacket, and had a ponytail. The other was wearing a bandana and glasses.

A team of genin from Amegakure were talking to the two genin.

"Come on, you asses move out of the way," said one of them, with an umbrella on his back, red eyes, and a dark blue mohawk.

"Please, if you try to get in at that level, you'll get yourself killed," said the ponytailed one.

"He's right, the chunin exams are nuts. You could go crazy, you could get traumatized, or you could get killed," said the other.

"We'll just have to find that out ourselves," said Kouun, stepping forward. "But that'll have to wait until you undo your genjutsu."

"So you knew," said the one with glasses, undoing the genjutsu, revealing that they were standing in front of Room 201.

"Hey, kid, you must think you're so tough," said the Ame ninja. "I don't like it when rookies get cocky."

"What are you gonna do about it?"

The Ame ninja kicked Kouun, but he was able to block the kick. However the ninja spun the opposite direction on his heel and roundhouse kicked Kouun in the face. Kouun wiped the blood from his mouth and tried to punch the ninja in the face. However the ninja used his hands to block the punch. Seeing an opening in his guard, Kouun punched the ninja in the gut.

The Ame ninja stepped back a couple steps and said, "Not bad, kid. Who are you?"

"My name is Kouun Raiden, and you?"

"My name is Koushi Eeteru," he said making a few handseals.

However, Koushi suddenly stopped moving. Seeing this, Kouun charged at him, but was stopped as well.

"What's going on?" asked Kouun.

The kid with the ponytail stepped forward, revealing that his shadow was touching both of their shadows, and transformed in a puff of smoke. The smoke revealed a chunin who looked much like a taller version of himself.

"Shikamaru?" asked Shippuu.

"How troublesome. Hey, in the chunin exams, we don't want any fighting without the consent of a proctor, okay?"

The crowd of genin silently acknowledged this statement and all went up the stairs to Room 301. Well, all the genin except three: Kouun, Tsubame, and Shippuu.

"_There are so many strong people taking the exams. Koushi, Yamamaru, and Shippuu," _thought Kooun.

"_All these people taking the exams. Yamamaru, that Sayuu chick, and Kouun," _thought Shippuu.

"_Damn, so many weird people are taking the exams. I'm stuck with Kouun, Sayuu, and my brother," _thought Tsubame.

The three genin then entered Room 301 and were surprised to see so many people there.

"Damn! All these people are taking the exams?" said Kouun.

"Looks like the exams are pretty popular," said Shippuu with a devious grin.

"_Don't these guys know when to be quiet?" _thought Tsubame. _"All these participants look really anxious."_

"Ah, Kouun-kun!" squealed a pink haired girl clinging on Kouun.

"_Oh great, it's Akane," _thought Tsubame.

"Get the hell off me! Help, Tsubame-chan!"

"Nah, I rather like this."

Akane let go of Kouun and turned to Tsubame.

"Tsubame-_chan_? Why's he calling you Tsubame-_chan_?"

"I honestly don't know."

"What the hell is wrong with you? What happened between the two of you, huh? Why are you trying to take my man away from me, huh?"

"Wait, since when was I your man?"

"Shut up, you miserable sack of manliness!"

After hearing that comment, Kouun's face adopted a look which seemed so say, "Wait, what?"

"Hey, you guys are so noisy!"

Akane's teammates, Zenpou and Hachuumaru, stepped up to see their former classmates.

"Hey, hey, Hachuu!" called Shippuu. "Long time no see, buddy!"

"Yo, what up, man?" asked Hachuu, bumping fists with his friend.

"Well, well if it isn't Kouun Raiden," said Zenpou. "I never thought I'd see you so soon."

"Zenpou Sumiyaka. I was thinking that you might've chickened out of the chunin exams."

"Not a chance, Rose-Head. I plan to beat you myself."

"Good luck with that, blondey. I don't see you beating him in any situation, but after I fight him, you'll be wanting to challenge me."

"Why do I not find much truth to that statement."

"Yeah, Shippuu," said Hachuumaru. "We've all gotten a hell've a lot stronger since graduation.

"Don't think that you guys are the only ones who've gotten stronger," replied Kouun.

"Hey you in front! Shut the hell up!" yelled someone from the back of the classroom.

"Screw you asshole!" called back Zenpou flipping his middle finger at him.

"Don't make me get over there, you snot-nosed, piss-brained, smartass, little brat."

"What's keepin ya, punk? All talk and no action?"

Just then, a large explosion occurred in the room and a man with scars on his face and a bandana appeared with a few chunin.

"Did you not listen outside, you punks? There will be no fighting without our consent, or do you want to be flunked right away?"

The scarred man was answered by total silence.

"That's what I thought. Now then, I believe introductions are in order now. I'm Ibiki Morino, proctor for the first exam, and for the next hour, your worst nightmare."

Once again, the man was answered by silence. However this time, the silence was accompanied by a cold sweat from nearly every person in the room.

"Now then, instead of your current seating arrangements, you will be assigned a number. When you get that number, go and get your tests.

"A PAPER TEST?" called a few people in the classroom.

10 MINUTES LATER

"Do not flip over your tests yet. First, I will explain the rules. There will be no questions asked at this time."

"_No questions?" _thought Kouun.

"Now then, you each start off with a total of ten points. The test has ten questions, each worth one point. For each question that is incorrect, you will lose one point. Also, this is a team test, meaning you will pass based on your total score."

"_SHIT!" _thought the entirety of Team 8.

"This is the most important rule. There will be absolutely no cheating during this test. If you are caught cheating, then it will result in a deduction of two points for each offense. Also if one person fails, then his entire team fails."

"_FUCKING SHIT!" _thought Tsubame and Kouun.

"Now, BEGIN!"

END CHAPTER

Yeah, I know. I'm late. Sue me. I've had a lot of stuff to do, so shut up. Anyway, "The First Test" is next time, so don't forget to stay frosty :).


	13. The First Test

WARNING: This chapter contains a lot of thinking, so if you are not used to thinking BEWARE!

Disclaimer: Yada, yada, yada, blah, blah, blah.

"Ready, BEGIN!" signalled Ibiki.

All the chunin hopefuls in the room flipped over their test papers and began frantically looking over their tests.

"_Let's see. Question #1 is a cryptogram...lucky me!" _thought Shippuu. _"Who knew doing useless crap in the morning would be helpful one day!"_

"_Question #2: Line A is the greatest possible distance a shinobi can throw is shuriken from a tree of height 7 meters. For enemies who appear within the circumference of the shuriken's range, how many attack options do you have," _read Tsubame. _"That's pretty hard, but I think I got it."_

"…_Hmmm," _thought Kouun. _"I CAN'T ANSWER ANY OF THESE!"_

"_Damn," _thought Shippuu, clutching his head in frustration._ "I can only answer two of these, I'm so screwed! Unless…"_

"_So many of these questions are impossible to answer," _thought Tsubame._ "And plus the tenth question, 'This question will be given 45 minutes into the test.'…I see now."_

"_All these proctors looking around at us, it's like they're expecting us to cheat," _thought Kouun. He then noticed one of the proctors writing on a sheet of paper, _"Someone just got caught. Wait a second! They're giving us four chances to cheat. That means that this isn't a test of intellegence…"_

"_It's a test to see how well we can cheat without getting caught, to see how well we can gather information!" _they all thought at once.

"_I don't think that either Tsubame or Kouun has any spying techniques, lucky for them I have a move I've been waiting to try out," _thought Shippuu, making his fingers form a cross. _"Shadow Clone Jutsu!"_

Shippuu made a clone of himself, but not next to himself. Instead, he used a little bit more chakra so that the clone would stick to the ceiling. The clone crawled around the ceiling looking at the answers to questions.

"_Come on Kouun, Tsubame, show me some way to know that you can see me."_

At that moment, Kouun smirked and chuckled a bit and Tsubame tightened her headband.

"_Alright, it's a good thing we all know sign language," _thought Shippuu.

The Shippuu clone then used sign language to tell his teammates the answers to the questions. After telling them all the answers, Shippuu dispersed the clone. Now that he had the answers Shippuu completed his test and waited for the test to finish. The rest of Team 8 noticed some of the other teams feeble attempts to cheat and their subsequent disqualifications.

15 MINUTES LATER

"All right, everyone, pencils down," said Ibiki. "It's time for the tenth and final question."

All the genin put their pencils down and looked anxiously at the scarred proctor.

"For the final question the rules are changing. You will have to decide whether or not to take it. If you choose not to take the question that you will automatically be failed."

"Then of course we're gonna take the question!" called someone in the classroom.

"Don't interrupt me, I'm not finished. If you do choose to the question and answer incorrectly, you will lose the right to take the exam ever again."

"No way, there are people here who've taken the exams before!" called Zenpou.

"Well, they're the ones who chickened out I guess."

ELSEWHERE

Sora was sitting in a room with a few other jonin thinking to himself, _"Now's the time. Some of them must be going nuts at this point of time. Ibiki is the leader of the ANBU's Interrogation squad. He knows the human brain like a narcissist knows their own complexion. Maybe it was too early for them."_

IN THE CLASSROOM

"Enough wasting time, those of you who wish to quit, raise your hands."

"_Damn it, there's no way I can answer this question, it's most likely going to be the most difficult. But wait what if that's what he wants us to think? If I get this wrong, then I'll be dooming Kouun and Tsubame. Kouun needs this to prove himself to his family. But I can't be a quitter," _thought Shippuu, as many people around him began to quit.

Shippuu then rose his hand.

"_Sorry guys."_

The people who knew Shippuu well; namely Kouun, Tsubame, and Hachuumaru; looked at Shippuu in total disbelief.

"SCREW YOU TO HELL!" he yelled, pounding his fist on the table. "YOU SET US UP WITH AN OPPORTUNITY LIKE THIS AND YOU EXPECT US TO RUN AWAY? YOU'RE EXPECTING US TO JUST RUN AWAY FROM OUR PROBLEMS WHEN WE GET THE CHANCE? I HATE IT WHEN PEOPLE THINK LIKE THAT. IN REAL LIFE YOU CAN'T JUST WALK AWAY FROM WHATEVER PROBLEMS HAPPEN IN YOUR LIFE, YOU HAVE TO FACE THOSE PROBLEMS HEAD ON!"

"_Hmm, déjà vu," _thought Ibiki. "Are you sure about this."

"Hell yeah."

Ibiki looked around the room and saw how everyone's troubles went away.

"Kid, what's your name?" he asked.

"Shippuu Uzumaki, brother of Naruto Uzumaki."

"_That explains a lot."_

"I see that none of you has anymore doubts. So I'll get on with it."

All of the remaining genin gulped hard and wiped the perspiration from their brows.

"Congratulations on passing the first test."

"Huh?"

"There never was a tenth question. Well, you could say those two choices were the tenth question."

"Then what was the point of the first nine questions?" asked Yamamaru.

"They served their purpose. That was a test of your information gathering skills. There were three chunin hidden amongst you and you had to cheat to get the answers from them."

"_Tsubame and Kouun owe me," _thought Shippuu.

"This is because in the world of the shinobi, information is the most valuable weapon," he continued, taking off his bandanna to reveal horrible scars, burns, and drill holes on his head. "But the tenth question was the true point of the test. As the kid said you can't avoid a dangerous mission as a chunin just because you're worried about your life or your comrades' lives. Those who decided that they could just wimp out and take the test next year are cowards who don't deserve to lead a team. So congratulations."

"_Sweet! We did it!" _thought Shippuu.

Ibiki then looked at the clock, _"3…2…1…"_

Suddenly someone jumped through the window, flipped in the air and stood up. The person was an attractive young woman with purple hair, a brown jacket and a fishnet.

"Alright, you maggots, I'm Anko Mitarashi, your second examiner!"

END CHAPTER

Yeah, this chapter was pretty short, only 6 pages, but it was a pretty short test. Well, stay tuned because next, Team 8 will have to deal with: The Second Test.


	14. The Second Test

LATER

"Now this is just too weird," said Kouun, looking at the enclosed forest area, the 44th Battle Training Ground, a.k.a the Forest of Death. "And kinda creepy, too."

"It don't seem too bad," replied Hachuumaru. "I kinda like it."

"Whatever lizard-boy," Zenpou retorted.

"You guys'll soon find out why it's called the Forest of Death," said Anko.

"I don't like the sound of that," said Akane.

"Ah, quit being a bunch of scaredy cats. Sheesh."

"Ooo, looks like we've got a feisty one," Anko said sinisterly. She then pulled out a kunai and threw it right past Shippuu's face, cutting his cheek.

"_I love this routine," _she thought, before appearing in front of Shippuu and wiping the blood off his cut with her thumb. She then licked the blood off her thumb.

"Now before we start the test I need to pass something out," said Anko pulling out a pile of papers. "It's a release form saying that if you die, we take no responsibility."

After each person got the waver Anko continued, "Now I'll explain the second test. Simply put, it's a survival exam. Around the 44th Battle Training Ground are 44 locked gates. Inside are a river and a large forest with a tower in the center. From the gates to the center is approximately 10 kilometers. While taking part in this exam, we ask to complete a certain task. Use your many weapons and jutsu in an all-out, no rules scroll battle. You will be fighting over these two scrolls: Heaven and Earth. Half of the 18 teams here will get a Heaven scroll and the other half will get an Earth scroll. To pass the test, your team must make it to the tower with both scrolls. The test will last exactly five days."

"But what about food?" asked a genin in the crowd.

"You're on your own. Besides the forest is full of food, but there will be competition. Some of you may think that half of the teams will make it. As the days go on, the distance to the goal is farther, and the area is full of enemies, you won't be sleeping much. Some may not get the scrolls and fail, other will fail by dying."

Several gulps were heard from the crowd. Nearly every genin in the vicinity was sweating bullets.

"No to talk about disqualification. First, if you don't make it to the tower with both scrolls within the time limit, you fail. Second, you must have a full team by the time you reach the tower. There will be no quitting in the middle; you will stay all five days. And finally, under no circumstances may you look inside the scroll."

"What happens if you do?" asked a timid genin.

"I can't tell you that, I'll spoil the secret. A chunin will be asked to handle classified information. This is to test your credibility. That's all for the explanations, now get your scrolls and get ready to start in 30 minutes."

All the genin made their way to the gates they wanted and got ready to go. Half an hour passed slowly but finally at 3:30, Anko announced, "The second test of the Chunin Exam starts now!"

Each genin team entered the gate into their possible demise. Some were stealthy, some were hunting, some were loud, and some were nervous.

A few minutes into the exam, Shippuu's group heard a scream.

"Hey, that scream was human, right?" Shippuu asked, sweating a bit.

"Someone probably just died," answered Tsubame.

"Y-y-y-you th-th-think s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-so?" Shippuu asked nervously.

"What's wrong, Shippuu, scared?" asked Kouun.

"N-n-no way man!"

"Well, it seems we have a few scared kids," said a voice from the trees.

"Who's there?" asked Shippuu.

To answer his question a kunai came out of the nearby trees. The three genin dodged the weapon, only to find that there was an explosive note attached to it. The kunai exploded right in their faces.

Shippuu jumped out of the smoke and threw his own kunai at the source of the enemy's kunai. The kunai struck and someone fell out of the tree.

"Shit!" said a young man from Kusagakure with black bangs, and a camo costume.

Pulling the kunai out of his arm, he charged at Shippuu.

_"Not if I can help it!" _he thought. _"Shadow Clone Jutsu!"_

Shippuu created two shadow clones. The three Shippuus charged at their opponent.

_"Pfff, simple tricks," _thought the black-haired genin.

However, the genin's thoughts were interrupted by a punch from the two side Shippuus. The original Shippuu then jumped off his clones' backs and created another clone in mid-air. The new clone grabbed Shippuu by the sleeve and threw him at the black-haired genin. Shippuu's fist collided with his enemy, slamming him into the ground.

Just then, Tsubame and Kouun caught up to Shippuu.

"Quick, while he's still out, check to see if he has an Earth scroll," ordered Tsubame.

Shippuu complied with his teammates order.

"Damn, he's got a Heaven scroll. But I did find his wallet."

"Oooo, lemme see!" said Kouun.

_"Why me?"_ thought Tsubame.

"Sweet, he's got like 36,000 Ryo!" (Note: I based the currency off UN3)

"Alright you two, stop goofing off. That attack just now proved that we can't afford to let our guards down."

"We'll give you a share of the profit," offered Shippuu.

"... Fine just make it quick."

SEVERAL HOURS LATER

Team 8 was jumping between the branches of several trees in the Forest of Death.

"So we're looking for people with an Earth Scroll, right Tsubame-chan?"

"Yeah, what of it?"

"Wouldn't it be a bit easier if we all split up?"

"No way man," replied Shippuu. "If we tried to confront another team alone, we'd be dead in minutes."

"I mean, if we split up and search."

"Actually Kouun, that sounds like a good idea," replied Tsubame.

_"Score!"_

"We'll split up and look for any teams in the vicinity. We'll return here in one hour, got it?"

"Understood!"

The three genin then split up in opposite directions.

THIRTY MINUTES LATER

_"Damn, half an hour and still nothing. Wait, what's that?"_

Shippuu stopped jumping between branches when he saw what looked like a small camp. He jumped down a few branches until he was right above the camp.

_"It's empty. Wait, if it's empty then why-"_

Shippuu's thoughts were interrupted by a kick to the face. Shippuu was sent crashing into the camp site.

_"Crap, it was a diversion!"_

The mohawked Ame ninja that Kouun had fought before was there.

"You're, Koushi Eeteru right?"

"That's right," he replied, grabbing the umbrella on his back. "Suishou, Shinju, come on out!"

Two more ninja jumped from the shadows. One was a girl with short, black hair. She wore a cream colored robe. She also had a katana at her waist. The other was a male with long, unkempt, red hair hat ran down to his waist. His face from the nose down was covered by a mask. He wore a high-collar black jacket and baggy black pants.

"Fire Style: Grand Fireball Jutsu!" said Shinju, spitting out a ball of fire.

Shippuu created a clone to throw him out of the way of the fireball. He then created two more clones and each on attacked a ninja. Suishou defeated one clone with her sword. Shinju defeated the other clone with taijutsu. Shippuu himself was crushed by Koushi's umbrella.

_"Shit! My shoulder! His umbrella was that heavy?"_

Koushi then kicked Shippuu up. The orange-haired gennin managed to land on his feet.

_"Damn it, I'm gonna need a new strategy," _he thought, fixing his dislocated shoulder.

Shippuu then activated his Chakra Armor.

"Yo, Suishou, what's he doin'?" asked Shinju.

"Looks like this kid has decided to get serious. He's using a pretty advanced jutsu. It creates an armor around him that increases his resistance to many attacks."

"So basically it's nothing to worry about," replied Shinju, charging at Shippuu.

Shippuu then made roughly twenty shadow clones surrounding the genin. The mass of Shippuus began an all-out assault on the Ame ninjas. However, Koushi threw his umbrella into the sky. Suddenly a whole rain of senbon implanted themselves in every single Shippuu. All the shadow clones dispersed, leaving the real Shippuu with senbon embedded in him.

Shippuu staggered backwards until he realized that he was at a ledge over the river that cuts through the forest.

_"Crap!"_

However, his thoughts were interrupted when he saw another fireball speeding towards him.

"SHIT!"

LATER AT THE MEETING PLACE

Tsubame and Kouun were waiting at the place where they had originally split up.

"He's ten minutes late," said Tsubame. "I'm worried."

"Yeah, me too. Let's look for him."

Tsubame and Kouun set off in the direction that Shippuu had originally gone. They stopped when they saw a piece of paper on a branch.

"It says that he saw a camp here," read Kouun.

The two jumped down from the branch. They looked around for any signs of Shippuu. They were about to move on but Tsubame noticed some blood. The blood made a small trail to a small ledge overseeing the river.

_"Oh no!" _thought Kouun.

ONE HOUR LATER

Out of the corner of his eye, Kouun noticed a small trail of blood leading away from the river. The two ninja followed the trail until they arrived at a small camp, where they saw a familiar face.

"Sayuu?" the two asked in unison when they saw the girl with Shippuu's head in her lap.

"Hm, oh it's you guys!"

"Why are you taking care of Shippuu?" asked Kouun.

"Well, I did say that we were friends," she said with a shining smile. _"Besides, he looks so much like _him_."_

"Um, thank you," said Tsubame.

"Also, take this," she said, signaling for one of her teammates to throw a Heaven scroll at them.

"Wait, you're just giving us a scroll?" asked Kouun. "I'm sorry but I have my pride, I can't accept this."

Tsubame pulled Kouun aside and said, "I know that you have pride, but just think for a moment. This could be our last chance to get a scroll. Trying to take care of Shippuu in this condition will leave us as sitting ducks."

Kouun seemed to contemplate for a second and said, "Fine, I see your point."

Tsubame and Kouun turned back to Sayuu and her group and said, "Fine, we'll accept your offer."

"Okay, I used some medical ninjutsu to heal him but he won't be able to walk on his own for another three days, and it'll be a week before he can be in peak fighting condition."

"Thank you," said Kouun, taking Shippuu in his arms.

The two ninja then left Sayuu and her friends.

END

Now that Shippuu is out of it, Kouun and Tsubame must fend for themselves for three days. They have both scrolls, but will it stay that way? Next Chapter: The Next Stage.


	15. The Next Stage

TWO DAYS LATER: AT NIGHT

Kouun and Tsubame were by the river, eating some fish that they had caught and grilled.

"Tsubame, he'll be waking up tomorrow," said Kouun.

"Yeah, what of it?"

"So far we've been able to stay out of any battles, but we should probably get as close to the tower as possible."

"I'm not sure that's such a good idea. The closer we are to the tower, the more danger we'll be in."

"Why's that?"

"First of all, all the teams that have collected scrolls will be going there, meaning that we'll be in the path of the stronger teams. Also the people who want to weed out some of the other teams to get a greater chance of success later will be there, too."

"But look at the other side. If we wait until Shippuu's better, he'll only slow us down."

"_Crap, he's right. What to do?"_

The two ninja remained silent, both thinking of a solution for their dilemma.

"We're gonna have to risk it," said Tsubame finally.

"You sure?"

"What choice do we have?"

"Good point."

A FEW HOURS LATER

Tsubame and Kouun were jumping through the trees, Shippuu on Kouun's back.

"Okay, we're only an hour away from the castle," said Tsubame. "We should be even more careful now."

"Sure thing. Wait what the hell—"

Kouun was interrupted by a kunai. He dodged it in the nick of time, it only cutting his cheek.

"_Damnit, we've been found!" _thought Tsubame.

However, her thoughts were interrupted by a kick. She was sent flying into another tree, however she used her chakra to stick to it.

Then the teammates of genin that had attacked them appeared at her side. The team was from Suna.

The first genin looked about 18. She had a Suna bandanna tied around her mouth. Her brown hair was in bangs over her left eye. She wore a red vest and black pants. Her two male teammates both had black hair. The first had shaggy hair and a goatee. He was wearing a golden collared shirt and baggy pants. The last member had short hair, mostly covered by his beret, which had the Suna insignia on it. He was wearing all black clothing.

The ninja with the beret attacked first. He threw akunai at Tsubame but she deflected it with her own kunai. Then the goateed ninja threw some sort of small ball at them. Kouun and Tsubame jumped away just in time as this exploded in a cloud of smoke.

"Kouun! Let's use plan epsilon!"

"Yes mam!"

The genin with the bandanna then jumped after them with a kunai in each hand. Tsubame met her with her own kunai. She then kicked the woman in the stomach, knocking her back to her two teammates.

Tsubame then pulled out a scroll and performed a summoning jutsu to summon a windmill shuriken. She then performed a Shi no Kazaguruma to sever the tree branch that the three genin were standing on. The two genin on the part of the branch that was chopped off fell with the branch. The goateed genin dived after them but Kouun intercepted him with a Denki Sesshoku.

"Wow, looks like we managed to pull it off," said Kouun out loud.

"Kouun, don't get distracted. We have to keep moving."

A FEW HOURS LATER

"_Ugh, where am I? And why is the world all jumpy?"_

Shippuu woke up to find himself on Kouun's back.

"Hey, it seems like you're finally awake, Shippuu," said Kouun.

"The three genin stopped moving to let Shippuu off of Kouun.

"Can you move?" asked Tsubame.

"Yeah, but I'm really sore. How long have I been out of it?"

"Almost three days," said Kouun. "In that time we managed to get the other scroll and now we're just heading to the castle."

"We should start moving again, Shippuu can explain what happened on the way."

"Not much to say," said Shippuu, following his teammates. "You remember that Koushi guy? Long story short: his team kicked my ass."

LATER AT THE CASTLE

The the genin arrived at the castle and found a big door. They walked inside into a large empty room.

"Uh, guys, no one's here," said Shippuu, pointing out the obvious.

Kouun then pointed out something on the board which said: "If you do not possess heaven, gain knowledge and be prepared. If you do not possess earth, run through the fields and seek strength. If you open both heaven and earth, dangerous paths turn into safe ones. This is the secret of—"

"The secret of what?" asked Shippuu.

"I don't know, it's just blank."

"It's telling us to open the scrolls, most likely," said Tsubame.

Shippuu gave one of the scrolls to Tsubame and the two nervously opened them. In the center of the scrolls was 人, or person. Then smoke began to rise from the scrolls.

"_These are summoning scrolls!" _thought Tsubame. "Shippuu let the scroll go!"

The two preteens threw the scrolls away just in time before a large puff of smoke appeared. The smoke cleared, revealing Shikamaru standing there.

"Looks like you guys did it, albeit with a little bit of trouble. Especially you, Shippuu," he said.

"Shikamaru-san, why are you here?" asked Shippuu.

"The test is set up that upon completion, a chunin is sent to greet you guys. And you guys passed with a day to spare. Congradulations on passing the second test you guys."

The three genin then happily collapsed on the ground, taking a well-needed and deserved rest.

"_Heh, looks like even Shippuu is tired after this test," _thought the pineapple-headed chunin.

"Hey, Shikamaru-san, what would you have done if we opened the scrolls?" asked Tsubame.

"It's simple, I would;ve knocked you out until the end of the test."

"_Thank you, Sayuu!" _thought Kouun. "Wait, what about that paragraph on the wall?"

"Explaining it to you guys will be so troublesome," Shikamaru said with a sigh. "But its my job. Heaven refers to knowledge. So if you lack knowledge, you must study and become smarter. Earth refers to strength, so if you are physically weak you must train and become stronger. If you are both strong and smart, you missions will become easy. Person goes into the missing space. So it means that this test was to test your basic abilities that a chunin would need."

"Shikamaru-san, do you think we can pass?" asked Kouun.

"That depends on you guys. The next test will be hard, and you will see thing you probably will never want to see. But those of you who can take that will pass."

"Kouun, stop saying stupid shit like that. You want to surpass your cousin right? And I want to be the greatest. This Chunin Exam isn't our goal. It's a stepping stone for us. If we can't become chunin, then how are we gonna reach our goals?"

Kouun let out a slight chuckle and said, "You know Shippuu, you may be an idiot sometimes but other times you know the right thing to say."

"_That's Naruto's brother for you," _thought Shikamaru. _"Someday he'll be just as troublesome as his big brother." _"Alright you guys, rest up until tomorrow, when you'll be told what your next test is."

"Yessir!"

THE NEXT DAY

All the teams that passed the exam were lined up in front of their respective jonin teachers, proctors, and the Fifth Hokage.

"Wow, out of all the teams taking the test, eighteen survived. That's still a lot."

"_All right, Hachuu's team passed. But it also looks like Koushi's team passed as well," _thought Shippuu.

"_Those guys from the sand passed too, huh. And so did Sayuu's team," _thought Kouun.

"_Damn, my brother's team passed," _thought Tsubame.

Tsunade, after explaining that the chunin exams were really to strengthen the alliances between countries, said, "Your third test will be several one-on-one battles in which we will observe you and decide if you will be chunin, but there is one problem. Genma!"

"Yes Hokage-sama. Alright, listen up people. There are too many of you. So we're gonna hold one-on-one prelims. Does anyone want to give up?"

Sayuu and one of her beaten up teammates raised their hands.

"I'm a healer not a fighter, and my friend is a bit too roughed up to fight."

"Shippuu," said Kouun. "You should give up too. It'll be another three days until you're ready to fight, don't push yourself too hard."

"I have to agree with Kouun, Shippuu," said Tsubame.

"No, I've come to far, and that's final."

"Well it looks lke no one else is gonna give up, so let the machine decide on the next fight."

Then to the shock of a few people in the room, the two names that came up were: Fuubi and Shippuu Uzumaki.

END CHAPTER

The second test is finally over, but its out of the frying pan and into the fire for Shippuu.

What will he do in the next chapter: **Preliminary Bouts.**


	16. Preliminary Bouts

NOTICE: I noticed an error in the previous chapter. I accidentally said that eighteen teams survived, I meant to say eighteen genin. He oops :P

"_Crap, Shippuu's gonna be fighting first?" _thought Kouun.

"I want everyone who isn't fighting to head on up those stairs," said Genma.

The genin teams then each met up with their jonin teachers. Except Shippuu and Fuubi, Sayuu's last remaining teammate. Fuubi was a thin person, wearing a shirt that looked three sizes too large for him.

"Hey Kouun, Shippuu looks a little beat up," pointed out Sora. "What happened?"

"He got ganged up on, and he shouldn't be fighting rite now."

"Let the match BEGIN!" called Genma.

"Fuuton: Renkudan (Wind Release: Drilling Air Bullet)!" Fuubi said, filling up his diaphragm with air. He then punched his own gut, firing out a ball of air and chakra.

The ball of air crashed into Shippuu, causing a fairly large explosion. The force of the explosion sent Shippuu crashing into the wall behind him. Fuubi then fired another air bullet at Shippuu. The explosion created a large crater in the wall with Shippuu not in it.

"_Where'd he go?" _thought Fuubi, looking around for his missing opponent.

Shippuu then jumped down from his spot under the balcony on which the spectators were… spectating from. His fist connected with Fuubi's face. However, Fuubi was able to get counter with a punch of his own.

"_Crap, his taijutsu is pathetic, but I've been weakened so much his punches feel like bricks!" _thought Shippuu. _"What am I gonna do?"_

Fuubi then went on the offensive again, charging at Shippuu. The orange-haired preteen created a shadow clone to push him out of way of the teenager's attack. However, using the cover of the smoke created after the dispersal of the clone, Fuubi quickly span around and fired another air bullet at Shippuu. The ball exploded right in Shippuu's face, sending him crashing into the wall yet again.

MEANWHILE ON THE OBSERVATION DECK

"Hey Hachuumaru, looks like Shippuu's getting his ass kicked. Looks like you owe me a lot of money," Zenpou taunted his teammate.

"This isn't right. I've seen him fight before, this isn't even half his strength. He must be injured. Kouun what happened to him?" asked Shippuu's best friend.

"Let's just say, he shouldn't be fighting for another three days. He's such an idiot," explained Kouun. He then cried out "CRAP" when he saw Shippuu get blasted into another wall.

BACK TO SHIPPUU'S FIGHT

"_Damn it, I'm getting my ass handed to me on a silver platter! I need a strategy."_

Shippuu created a few shadow clones, which each charged at Fuubi. The teenager fired another air bullet at the clones, but they created more clones to shield them. The original clones then emerged from the smoke created from Fuubi's technique and attacked the teen. The first clone punched Fuubi in the face, then another clone appeared below Fuubi and kicked him into the sky. The rest of the clones then jumped above Fuubi and knocked him into the ground.

"_Damnit, Shadow Clones take up too much chakra," _thought Shippuu. _"What am I gonna do?"_

Shippuu's thoughts were cut short when he saw Fuubi stagger back to his feet.

"_Ok I've worn him down, but I'm spent. I'm gonna hafta finish him, now!"_

Shippuu then made the handseal for his most powerful technique.

MEANWHILE ON THE OBSEVATION DECK

"Sensei, Shippuu has to be insane to use that right now!" noted Kouun. "If his chakra is almost gone, what use will the Chakra Yoroi be?"

"To be honest I don't know, Kouun," replied the young jonin. "But if there's one thing I've learned in these past few weeks as your sensei, it's that Shippuu can't be predicted. He must have something up his sleeve."

BACK TO SHIPPUU'S FIGHT

"_I'm totally winging this right now, but this has to work!"_

Shippuu then began to muster up his chakra. He materialized enough to create the usual protective coating around him. However, he didn't stop there. Shippuu continued to gather his chakra until instead of his usual coat, it gave him what looked like an aura. His hair also began to stand on end.

"_What is this, some kind of manga?" _thought Fuubi. _"He's materialized so much chakra it's actually affected his appearance!"_

Then, Shippuu's pupils slowly turned green to match his irises. Then, what seemed to be a smile crept upon his mouth.

"_What the- he's laughing? But that's no ordinary smile. It sends shivers down my spine."_

OBSERVATION DECK AGAIN

"_This is Shippuu?" _wondered Tsubame. _"He's giving off so much killing intent that it's even making me unnerved."_

"_What the? Shippuu's never had a chakra like this before," _thought Kouun. He then felt moisture on the back of his neck. _"This chakra is so sinister, it's making me sweat."_

BACK TO THE FIGHT

"_No matter, I will win!" _thought Fuubi, breathing in a bunch of air again.

However, before he had a chance to fire it, Shippuu disappeared and reappered in front of him in a fraction of a second. However he reappeared with his knee in Fuubi's gut. The air bullet exploded prematurely, but it was small. However, during the short smokescreen, Shippuu grabbed Fuubi's face.

"_Oh crap he's not about to-" _thought Genma.

Shippuu then slammed Fuubi's head against the wall behind him.

"I win," he said, letting go of Fuubi's face, causing him to fall to the ground unconscious.

"I probably don't need to say this but, the winner is Shippuu Uzumaki!" announced Genma.

Shippuu then walked away from his defeated foe, but then his new, enhanced Chakra Yoroi deactivated itself and Shippuu fell to the ground unconscious.

"Call the medics, we have a likely concussion and a chakra drained one," called Genma.

A team of medics came and carried the two combatants away on stretchers.

"Let me clarify something, I was a little late on that one so please try not to 'kill' your enemy. It creates a bit of a mess for us. Besides the medics get better practice on unconscious people. Well anyway let's see the next match."

The matchmaker computer then displayed the names of the next two combatants: Yamamaru Areno and Ashi Inuzuka.

The two genin made their way down to the battlefield. Ashi Inuzuka looked to be about thirteen. His brown hair was big and messy and his face looked like the rest of his family's faces. He was wearing a brown hoodie with the hood down. His dog companion had cyan fur and was about the size of a sheltie.

"Hey, what's with the dog? Can't fight your own battles?" asked Yamamaru.

"What? You mean Midori here? She's my partner," replied the Inuzuka.

"That's frickin' disgusting."

"THAT'S NOT WHAT I MEANT! She's my battle partner."

"Whatever kid."

"Ahem. Let the match BEG-"

No sooner had Genma said "match," Midori had transformed into a clone of Ashi. They then began to rotate at an incredible speed.

"Gatsuuga! (Dual Piercing Fang)"

The two used one of the Inuzuka clan's strongest taijutsu and hit Yamamaru head on. His body was sent skyrocketing and then fell back down to the ground.

"Heh, over already?" taunted Ashi.

However, Yamamaru got back up, revealing that he was completely unscathed by the ferocious attack. Yamamaru then threw a few shuriken at the Inuzuka. The two Ashis dodged the shuriken in the nick of time, but Yamamaru had seen this coming. He had already ran in the direction that one of the Ashis had gone and intercepted him with his fist. The Ashi then got back up and they both tried another Gatsuuga.

This time, Yamamaru jumped to avoid the attack. In fact, he jumped all the way to the ceiling. Ashi and Midori stopped their attack to spot their foe but what they found was two Yamamarus.

"_He was using a clone this whole time? No, they smell a bit different but I just can't place my finger on it."_

Then the two Yamamarus jumped down to the ground. The first Yamamaru charged at Ashi with a punch. Ashi was able to block the punch but was caught by a kick. Quickly regaining his balance, he whistled, signaling Midori for another attack. Yamamaru was caught in front and from behind by the Gatsuuga.

Once again, Yamamaru was sent skyrocketing. And once again he got right back up. However, this time it seemed as though he had been injured. He then used his right hand to grab his left ear and then did something no one had expected.

He ripped off his own face.

It turned out that the face was a fake and "Yamamaru" was really a puppet disguised as Yamamaru. With a flick of his wrist, the real Yamamaru made his puppet come out of its disguise.

The puppet had four pairs of arms and stood on two legs. Its head was directly attached to its torso. Its entire body was fairly thin.

"_Crap, a puppet user!" _thought Ashi. _"I'm gonna hafta use _that _jutsu."_

Ashi and Midori then regrouped. They began to gather a lot of chakra and then transformed into a giant, green, two headed wolf.

"Jinju Kombi Henge: Sotoro! (Man Beast Combination Transformation: Double-Headed Wolf)"

The giant, green wolf then began to spin at a rapid rate.

"Garouga! (Dual Wolf Fang)"

The spinning wolf of death charged at Yamamaru. The older teen jumped to avoid the attack, but Ashi adjusted his itinerary to attempt to attack Yamamaru in the air.

"_This match is mine! No matter how fast he is, he can't move in mid air!"_

Yamamaru used his chakra strings to make his puppet intercept the fierce attack.

"_As if this flimsy toy could stop our jutsu!" _thought Ashi.

As if he could read Ashi's mind, Yamamaru then forced more chakra through his chakra strings. This made a bunch of slots on the puppet's back open up. Then flexible metal sheets came out of them. The puppet then rolled up into a ball. The balled-up puppet withstood Ashi's attack until he lost his momentum.

"_Crap, how was that little puppet able to withstand my strongest attack?"_

"I'll bet your wondering why Mokukeisei was able to stand up to your attack. Simple, those metal sheets there aren't iron, they're made up of a special alloy made by my family. But right now that's the least of your worries. Look around you."

Ashi and Midori subconsciously looked around them and noticed that all of Mokukeisei's arms were around them. The ends of each arm had a sharp blade attached.

"This is the end for you," said Yamamaru.

"I see your point. I forfeit."

"Alright then. The winner is Yamamaru Areno!"

As the two ninja walked to rejoin their teams Kouun thought, _"Yamamaru, I'm gonna have to be careful of him."_

Then the matchmaker revealed the names for the third match: Shinju and Hachuumaru Kusuburu.

END CHAPTER

Phew, these next few chapters are gonna have quite a bit of action in them so be prepared for that. Anyway the first two matches are finished, and Shippuu has unleashed a frightening new power. What will happen next in: **The Preliminaries Continue.**


	17. The Preliminaries Continue

Hachuumaru and Shinju both made their ways down to the fight area.

"_Shinju, huh? He's one of the guys that beat up Shippuu," _thought Kouun from the stands. _"I wish I was the one fighting him."_

"Well if the two of you are ready then BEGIN!" said Genma.

Shinju started the match by firing a fireball at Hachuumaru. The green-haired genin narrowly dodged the attack. He then made a few hand seals and slammed both palms on the ground.

"Doton: Chijouha (Earth Release: Ground Wave)!"

The ground where Hachuumaru slammed his palms began to move forward and pick up momentum. It then formed a five foot high wave that slammed into Shinju, pinning him against the wall.

"_We're seriously going to need some time to clean this mess up," _thought Genma with a sigh.

"Impressive technique, kid. But it's not good enough to stop me," said Shinju., breaking free of the earth.

He then ran along the path of overturned earth with inpressive speed to where Hachuumaru was and attempted to kick him. Hachuumaru narrowly avoided the blow but failed to see an incoming uppercut. As his head shot up, he was unable to block a kick to his stomach. He was then hit by a few quick jabs and finally a kick to the face sent him falling backwards.

"_Shoot, he's got some damn good taijutsu. I'm gonna need to kick it up a notch."_

Hachuumaru got up, wiped some blood from his chin, and made a few hand seals.

"Doton: Akuma Haaku (Earth Style: Devil's Grasp)!"

The ground by Shinju's feet then formed four hands that grabbed his ankles and wrists, holding him in place. Hachuumaru then stabbed Shinju in the stomach with a kunai.

"_Heh, alright I did it!"_

However, he had thought too soon, as he was headbutted by Shinju. Hachuumaru's jutsu then cancelled itself, freeing Shinju.

"Hmph, like a little injury like this'll stop the great Shinju!"

"_What in the world," _thought Hachuumaru. _"That's no flesh wound, I full on stabbed him!"_

"_That's not gonna stop Shinju," _thought Koushi from the stands. _"He's been picking fights since he could walk. He may not be suited for stealth or intelligence, but when it comes to a fight arena like this, with no hiding spots or time to make a strategy, no genin, not even I, can beat him."_

Shinju then made a few handseals and attacked with another Fireball Jutsu. Hachuumaru made a few handseals for a defensive jutsu.

"Doton: Doroku Gaeshi (Earth Style: Earth Shore Return)!"

Hachuumaru struck both hands on the ground, causing a wall of earth to rise in front of him and protect him from the large fireball.

"_That flimsy wall isn't going to protect you!" _thought Shinju, jumping directly over Hachuumaru.

He made a few handseals and said, "Katon: Hidama (Fire Style: Fireball)!"

Two orbs of fire were created in Shinju's palms. He then threw the two fireballs at Hachuumaru. The green haired genin barely dodged the attack, leaving scorched earth where he stood before.

Shinju landed a few meters away from where Hachuumaru was and said, "Well you dodged two of them, let's see how you do against even more of them!"

He then made a longer chain of handseals and said, "Katon: Kyuusoku Hidama (Fire Style: Rapid Fireball)!"

Two more fireballs appeared in Shinju's hands and he threw them. Hachuumaru was able to dodge these two fireballs. However, as those two were thrown, two more appeared in his hands. He then threw a massive barrage of fireballs at Hachuumaru.

"_Crap!"_

Hachuumaru then used his chakra to create a dome of earth around him. The fireballs bombarded the walls of the dome, but all damage to the wall caused by the fireballs was quickly repaired.

Meanwhile inside the dome, Hachuumaru had both hands placed against the sides of the dome.

"_Damn, I hate using this technique because it requires a steady stream of chakra."_

"_No way! Looks like this rain ninja is stronger than I originally thought!" _thought Zenpou on the observation deck. _"He's forcing Hachuumaru to bring out his strongest defensive move. That attack makes a dome of earth around him that constantly absorbs his chakra. But that chakra makes the dome repair itself. So until he run out of chakra, Hachuumaru is completely untouchable. It's easily a jonin-level jutsu. Hachuumaru's gonna get serious."_

After seeing that his attack wasn't working, Shinju stopped throwing fireballs. Hachuumaru then deactivated his jutsu, made a few handseals and said, "Doton: Sasuyari (Earth Style: Stabbing Lance)!"

Then a spike protruded from the ground in front of Shinju and attempted to run him through. However, the red-haired teenager dodged the attack.

"Well, it looks like you've finally recognized my strength," said Hachuumaru.

"And just what do you mean by that?"

"You dodged my attack, which means that if it hit you, it would've caused some damage.

"_Damnit, he's right. The Kyuusoku Hidama took up a big chunk of my chakra, but he's tired, too. But if he traps me with that Akuma Haaku again, I'm screwed. I guess I'll just hafta stay on the move!"_

Shinju then charged at Hachuumaru with a punch prepared, however the green-haired teenager used another Sasuyari. But this didn't stop Shinju. He jumped over the attack and landed on the spear. Then, without missing a beat, he resumed his attack. Hachuumaru was able to block Shinju's fist, but was not so lucky in guarding against Shinju's second punch. Hachuumaru was then hit by another barrage of punches and kicks, then was knocked to the ground by a punch to the jaw.

"_That should be enough," _thought Genma. But just when he was about to finish the match, Hachuumaru stood back up.

"Hey ref, I can keep going," he said, panting hard. "So don't even think about ending the match right now."

"_Damnit, why won't this kid stay down?" _thought Shinju.

Hachuumaru then made a few more handseals ending in rat.

"_That idiot!" _thought Akane up in the stands. _"He's going to use _that _jutsu in the preliminaries?"_

"Magen: Nise Sonzai no Shiya (Demonic Illusion: False View of the Present)!"

Then Hachuumaru slowly began to disappear. After a few seconds he was completely invisible.

"_What in the world?" _thought everyone in the stands except Hachuumaru's team. _"He's gone!"_

Suddenly, a deep cut appeared on Shinju's arm as it something had cut him.

"_The hell?" _he thought.

Suddenly he felt as though he had been punched in the nose and fell backwards.

"_Is he using a genjutsu? Then I'll just hafto-"_

However, his thoughts were cut short as he screamed out in pain. His leg suddenly started to bleed as if he had been stabbed. The pain caused him to fall to his knees. Then he saw another Sasuyari coming right at his face. He barely ducked out of the way of the attack.

"_Damnit, I hafta get out of this genjutsu."_

Shinju then pulled out a kunai and stabbed himself in the leg. The pain caused the genjutsu to wear off of him.

"_Hmmm, Hachuumaru Kusuburu, eh?" _thought Sora. _"He's been using all sorts of chunin-level techniques and even a jonin-level move. My main concern is where did he learn all these moves from? Ryuuko-san? They can't be clan jutsu, in fact I've never even heard of the Kusuburu clan, or anyone in the village with that name."_

"_This kid… he's forcing Shinju into a corner!" _thought Koushi. _"He's not your average genin. But Shinju still has one more trick up his sleeve. That green-haired kid isn't the only one with jonin-level techniques."_

Shinju made several handseals at a fairly rapid rate, _"I never thought I'd use my strongest ninjutsu here! But at least he won't have enough chakra to dodge it." _"Katon: Dai Endan (Fire Style: Great Flame Bullet)!"

Shinju spat out a stream of searing hot flames straight at Hachuumaru.

"_Damn, I've used up too much chakra! I can't dodge it!"_

The stream of fire collided head on with Hachuumaru.

"_That's brutal, how am I gonna break the news to Shippuu?"_

However Kouun's thought proved to be unnecessary as at the last second, Hachuumaru created a shield of earth with his chakra.

"_Finally, their both out of chakra," _thought Genma. _"This'll be the deciding blow."_

The two shinobi got to their feet and charged at one another. However, Shinju's injured leg gave out giving Hachuumaru the opening he needed to deliver the finishing punch to his opponent's face. Shinju fell to the ground unconscious.

"_It's over." _"And the winner is Hachuumaru Kusuburu!"

"I did it," Hachuumaru said before fainting where he stood.

"There will be a brief intermission before the next match so we can clean up the battle area after that fight," said Genma. "But let's see the names of our next two combatants."

The matchmaker did its job one more time and revealed the next two names: Kouun Raiden and Haruna Sakyuu.

END CHAPTER

I suddenly got free time so I'm gonna be working on this story quite a bit, so expect more frequent updates (at least until the Preliminaries are over). Now Hachuumaru is on his way to the finals, but is there more to Shippuu's best friend that meets the eye? What is the mystery behind his strength. Well, we'll have to forget about that for now, as Kouun faces one of Yamamaru's teammates in: **The Lightning Round.**

Also, in case you didn't bother reading my profile here is the URL for my wiki about this fanfic: uzumakilegacy(dot)wikia(dot)com

Until next time!


	18. The Lightning Round

Kouun and Haruna made their way to the fight arena.

"Hey, kid. Sorry for Yamamaru's rudeness couple weeks ago," said Haruna. "You know, the whole trying to kill you thing."

"Heh, no problem with me," replied Kouun. "I seem to have been getting that a lot these past few days."

"However, I'm not letting you get any further than this. I'm going to win this fight."

"We'll just hafta see about that, now won't we?"

"Alright you two, less talking and more fighting. BEGIN!"

Haruna started the fight. She charged at Kouun with a punch, but he redhead ducked under the attack. Then, Kouun punched Haruna in the gut hard. Perhaps too hard. His fist not only connected with her stomach, it went through it.

"_OH CRAP! I OVERDID IT!"_

Kouun then tried to pull his arm out of Haruna's body, but found that he couldn't.

"_Dammit, why won't my arm come out," _thought Kouun, with tears streaming out of eyes, anime style.

However, his thoughts were interrupted by a fist. Haruna's fist.

"What the f-"

Before he could finish his thought, he was punched again.

"_Che, so it was a trap the whole time!"_

"Suna Bunshin no Jutsu (Sand Clone Jutsu). I've trapped one of your hands, meaning that your taijutsu is limited to just one hand. And you can't make handseals, so no more ninjutsu or genjutsu for you!"

"Normally that would be the case," said Kouun. "But not with a genius like me! Denki Sesshoku!"

Then, without making any handseals, a clump of electricity formed in Kouun's hand. He slammed his palm against the Sand Clone's chest. The clone immediately turned into sand.

"_I'm glad I taught myself how to do that. Although not using handseals cuts the jutsu's power down to about 1/3 strength, it was still enough to dispel her Suna Bunshin."_

"Impressive, kid. But that was just the tip of the ice berg!"

The real Haruna then charged at Kouun with a punch. Kouun dodged to the left and kicked her in the ribs. However, Haruna recovered quickly enough to grab Kouun's leg and throw him. The red haired teen landed on his feet.

"_Dang it looks like I'm gonna have to change strategies."_

Kouun then made a series of handseals and slammed his palms on the ground. "Chikyuu Shougeki (Earth Impact)!"

Then a current of electricity flowed through the ground. Haruna attempted to jump to avoid the attack, but the electricity jumped from the ground and electrocuted her. She then fell to the ground.

"Heh, that was too easy. I knew that since u used a technique requiring sand, you must have an earth natured chakra. So my lightning attack would be even more devastating to you. Looks like you lost."

However, Haruna stood back up.

"Hm? You're more resilient than you look, but I know that right now, you're barely standing."

"_Damnit, he's right. I'm totally numb, but I have to fight back! What would Kabuki-kun think if I lost?"_

Then, much to Kouun's surprise, Haruna made a series of handseals. Then there was an explosion where Kouun had fought the Sand Clone. The redhead instinctively turned to see the explosion.

Haruna used the distraction to her advantage and punched Kouun in the face. She then threw a kunai, which Kouun barely dodged.

"Damn you! I'll show you why we're called the Raiden clan! Don't think our jutsu are limited to just Lightning Style!"

Kouun then made a series of handseals. "Ninpou: Ikazuchi no Jutsu (Ninja Art: Thunder Jutsu)!"

Kouun then brought chakra to his vocal chords and yelled at the top of his lungs. The chakra boost in his lungs increased the loudness of his yell. Haruna, who was closest to Kouun, took the brunt of the attack. The sheer volume of the attack caused Haruna to faint.

"You may be able to survive lightning," Kouun said with a hoarse voice. "But sound is something unavoidable, and it'll destroy you from the inside-out. Let that be a lesson to you."

"The winner is Kouun Raiden!"

"_Damn it, Ikazuchi requires a lot of chakra, and now my throat hurts like a bitch."_

"Alright people, it's time for the next match," said Genma after Haruna was carried away on a stretcher.

The matchmaking computer then displayed the names of the next two combatants: Zenpou Sumiyaka and Koushi Eeteru.

"_This guy is on the same team as that Hachuumaru kid. Looks like I can get revenge for Shinju."_

"Begin the battle!"

Zenpou made the first move. With impressive speed he charged at Koushi. He landed a punch to the face, then a kick to the ribs. Zenpou the tripped Koushi, and while his opponent was falling, kicked him in the jaw. Koushi fell backwards but did a handspring to land back on his feet.

"_This guy is fast, what's with these guys from Konoha?"_

Zenpou charged again, but this time Koushi anticipated it. The mohawked teen jumped over Zenpou and landed behind him. He then used his umbrella as a bat and smacked Zenpou. The blonde teen was sent flying until he crashed into a wall.

"_No way! He could make that fast with that heavy umbrella strapped to his back!?" _thought Kouun.

However, Zenpou recovered from the blow and thought, _"He must have insane physical strength to carry around that umbrella. I've got to avoid getting hit at all costs!"_

Zenpou then ran towards Koushi again, but this time he clotheslined him and kept running. He hit the brakes when he reached the other side of the room. Then, when Koushi stood back up, Zenpou charged at him again. This time Zenpou kicked him, sending his opponent crashing into the wall. Then, Zenpou began to form some handseals.

Koushi stood up from the carnage created by his crash and threw his umbrella in the sky. The umbrella began to spin and rain senbon needles. Before Zenpou could finish his sequence of seals, a bunch of senbon embedded themselves in him.

"_Now you can't use your speed that you're so proud of!" _thought Koushi, charging at Zenpou.

The blue haired teen's fist connected with Zenpou's face, sending the blonde crashing into another wall.

"_Ouch, I managed to avoid some of the damage by stepping back a little bit, but his strength is amazing," _thought Zenpou, removing the senbon from his body.

Zenpou then began to make handseals again, "Suiton: Tsuba Sandanjuu no Jutsu (Water Release: Saliva Shotgun Jutsu)!"

Zenpou brought chakra to his mouth and mixed it with his saliva. He then spat out a stream of water at Koushi. The stream hit him right in the face. The water pressure caused him to fall backwards.

"_Alright, he's down! Now I have time to set up my jutsu!" _Zenpou thought, making a few more handseals. "Suiton: Ame Funsha (Water Release: Rain Spray)!"

Zenpou then looked up and began spitting out more water. The water hit the ceiling and bounced down, forming synthetic rain. The rain caused the entire arena to become wet.

"_Now for my ultimate technique! Suiton: Mizu Hondou no Jutsu (Water Release: Water Highway Jutsu)!"_

"_If you thought I was fast before, you're in for a big surprise! This is my clan's signature jutsu!"_

Then Zenpou began skating on the water, and, to everyone's surprise, he was twice as fast as he was before. He slammed head on into Koushi, pushing him further into the wall. Then he turned around to get out of Koushi's range, which proved to be a good decision, as Koushi stood back up.

Koushi was bleeding but it seemed as though he didn't care.

"You…spat on me," he said. "But who cares about that right now? This fight…is getting interesting!"

Then Koushi's chakra flared and he began to chuckle evilly.

"Come on! Show me a good time!" he called, with a look of what one could call insanity on his face.

"_His chakra changed! It used to be calm and now it's like a hurricane!" _thought Zenpou.

"_First Shippuu, and now this guy! What's going on here?" _wondered Kouun.

"_Looks like we've got a couple berserkers in the Chunin Exam this year," _thought Sora.

Zenpou once again charged at Koushi. However, this time Koushi avoided the attack by running up the wall. He then jumped down in an attempt to take Zenpou out, but the blonde dodged the attack. Koushi then charged after Zenpou but couldn't match the Konoha ninja's speed.

"_Damnit! I have to stay out of his range!"_

Koushi then punched the ground with all his strength, causing a fissure to snake its way towards Zenpou.

"YOU'VE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME! IS THAT EVEN PHYSICALLY POSSIBLE!?" yelled Zenpou in complete disbelief.

However, the fissure was only a distraction, as Zenpou failed to notice that the gap between the two had become smaller. Before he knew it, Koushi was in his face. The blue haired teen punched Zenpou in the nose, sending him crashing into another wall. Koushi then charged one more time.

"Koushi it's over!" called Genma, but Koushi didn't stop.

"_Crap! We're about to have a tragedy here!" _thought Sora.

Genma was quick to grab Koushi's left arm, while a woman with long, black hair in formal clothing grabbed his right arm. Sora quickly punched Koushi in the stomach, knocking him out.

"Ryuuko-san, go check on Zenpou," said Sora.

The woman went to go check on her student.

"As you've probably guessed, Koushi Eeteru is the winner of the match," said Genma.

"_That was too close," _thought Sora. _"If we didn't act in time, Zenpou would be dead right now. Plus it took three jonin to stop him." _

"Zenpou's unconscious. His nose has been broken and he's losing blood fast! Call a medical team right away!"

Once Zenpou was carried away on a stretcher, the matchmaker decided on the combatants for the sixth match: Suishou and Kasumi.

The final rain ninja and Ashi's female teammate made their ways to the fight area.

Kasumi had a fairly large chest for her age, but that was not her only distinguishing feature. She had beautiful red eyes as well. Her clothes consisted of bandages wrapped around her torso from her navel to her her breasts, showing a fair bit of cleavage. She was also wearing a short skirt.

"_Woah!" _thought almost all the male genin in the room.

"_Whore," _thought almost all the female genin in the room.

"Let the match BEGIN!"

"Get ready Suishou!" called Kasumi in warning.

However the warning made no difference, because in the blink of an eye, Suisho appeared behind Kasumi and stabbed her through the back with her sword. After withdrawing her katana, she watched Kasumi's body fall to the ground.

"The winner is Suishou!"

"_I don't have time for this," _thought Suishou. _"This whole preliminary thing is a waste of time."_

The matchmaker then brought up the names for the seventh match: Akane Kokoro and Kabuki.

END CHAPTER

That didn't take long to write at all. In fact there are only two reasons I didn't upload this sooner. 1) I was writing the pilot for my new One Piece story and 2) my intenet was down so I couldn't upload it.

Kouun, Koushi, and Suishou are going to the finals now, and there are only two matches left. Who will win, Akane or Kabuki? And what of Tsubame who will be fighting in the last match? We'll find out in the next chapter: **The Migoto Clan.**

Until next time!


	19. The Migoto Clan

"Um, Referee-san?" said Akane.

"Yes, what is it Akane?" replied Genma.

"I'd like to forfeit the match, please."

"Are you sure? You might win the fight."

"_Yeah, that's the problem. If I do win then I'll have to face all these monsters in the finals. Shippuu was injured and he still won. That Yamamaru guy probably has more techniques hidden up his sleeves. There's no way I can beat Hachuumaru or anyone who was able to beat Zenpou. And that Suishou chick was able to beat one of our upperclassmen in one blow. And I could never fight against Kouun-kun. I have to forfeit!" _"Yes, I'm very certain."

"Very well then, the winner is Kabuki!"

"_Well damn, that's boring," _thought Kabuki. _"Everyone else here got to have some amazing battles, I wanted the spotlight, too."_

"Leave me alone, dammit!" called a familiar voice up on the observation deck.

"Huh?" said Kouun.

"Sir, you shouldn't be moving around with those injuries!"

"Hey! I'm fine! Just stay away from me with those damn needles!"

"But you need your sedatives, sir!"

"Like hell I do! Get away from me you crazy doctor!"

"_You've GOT to be kidding me," _thought Tsubame.

"_He's awake already?" _wondered Hachuumaru.

"_What a monster!" _thought Akane.

"Oh great," sighed Kouun.

"Leave me alone you son of a bitch!" yelled Shippuu, covered in bandages, at the doctor chasing after him with a needle.

"Shippuu, you're awake already?" asked Kouun.

"Yeah, and I feel great! So I don't need any damn shots!"

"Hard to believe when you look like a mummy," replied Tsubame.

"It's okay, Medic-san. I'll look after him for now," said Sora to the doctor.

"Alright then."

When the medic left, Shippuu asked, "Well, what's happened so far?"

"So far, me, you, Hachuumaru, Yamamaru, Koushi, Suishou, and Kabuki have passed," said Kouun.

"Wow, wait what about Tsubame?"

"It's her turn to fight, it's the last fight."

"Will Tsubame Migoto and Shin Migoto come to the battlefield?" asked Genma.

"_Shit, the last guy I wanted to fight," _thought Tsubame.

"_Shin Migoto? Are they from the same clan?" _wondered Shippuu.

Shin looked to be around 13 or 14. He had short, black hair and turquoise eyes. He was wearing a sleeveless black shirt and black pants.

"I hope you're ready, Tsubame-sama."

"I am, Shin-niisan."

"They're siblings?" wondered Kouun out loud.

"Hey Kouun, you know more about clans than I do," said Shippuu. "Tsubame shouldn't have anything to worry about, right? She's the next head of the Migoto clan, so she should have all sorts of jutsu that this Shin guy doesn't."

"That's only usually the case. I'm hoping that Shin isn't some sort of black sheep of the clan."

"Black sheep?"

"They're outcasts from the clan, either pushed away by other members or separated by their own choice. They're usually set aside because of differences in ideals, lack of power, or their just too powerful. I'm just hoping that Shin isn't a case of the last one."

"If you both are ready, then BEGIN!"

Tsubame started the match by throwing several shuriken, but Shin countered with his own shuriken. Tsubame then took out a pair of kunai and charged at her brother. The older teen easily dodged the attempts to cut him, but when Tsubame sped up her attacks, he was forced to fend her off with a kunai of his own. As Tsubame was about to use a X-slash on him, Shin used his kunai to block the point of intersection. The two then broke apart from each other.

"_Damn, he's as strong as ever," _thought Tsubame, pulling out a scroll.

"_She's using it already?" _thought Kouun.

Tsubame summoned a Demon Wind Shuriken and prepared for her signature attack.

"Shi no Kazaguruma!"

Even though an incredibly deadly shuriken was speeding towards him, Shin calmly sidestepped the attack, allowing it to slam against the wall behind him.

"_Hm, he kept his calm in the face an attack that could potentially kill him. This kid is no ordinary genin," _thought Sora.

"Damn," cursed Tsubame, taking out another scroll. "Ninpou: Buki no Mai (Ninja Art: Weapon Dance)!"

Tsubame waved her summoning scroll horizontally in front of her, shooting out several shuriken and kunai towards Shin. However, the older Migoto used the same jutsu, causing sparks to fly in the middle of the battlefield. Tsubame then jumped onto the the large hands forming the Hitsuji seal. She then took out two more scrolls and waved them vertically.

"Ninpou: Nijuu Buki no Mai (Ninja Art: Two-fold Weapon Dance)!"

Then, twice as many shuriken and kunai rushed at Shin. However, the older teenager calmly took out a pair of kunai, and, with blinding speed, deflected all the incoming projectiles. Then, without missing a beat, Shin threw his two kunai at Tsubame. The Migoto heir barely had time to dodge the knives, and doing so caused her to lose her balance and fall off the Hitsuji seal. However, flipping in mid-air allowed her to land on her feet.

"_This isn't looking good," _thought Tsubame.

"_You think you can hide back there?" _thought Shin, taking out a scroll. "Shi no Kazaguruma!"

Shin threw a windmill shuriken at the pair of hands. Tsubame dodged at the last second before the shuriken cut the hands in half horizontally.

"_Damn, I'm gonna have to use _it!" "Nijuu Shi no Kazaguruma!"

This time, Tsubame threw two supercharged windmill shuriken at Shin. However, the teenager jumped to dodged the incoming attack.

"_No! He dodged it!" _thought Shippuu.

Shin smirked a bit as he dodged one of Tsubame's strongest moves, however when he saw Tsubame tug back on some wire, his smile vanished. The giant shuriken both came rushing towards Shin's back, and since he was in mid-air, he was unable to avoid being cut from both sides.

"All right! She got him!" cheered Kouun and Shippuu.

However, their cheers were a bit too early, as Shin poofed into a log.

"What the-? There's nothing here to replace himself with! How could he use a Kawarimi?" wondered Kouun.

"Kuchiyose: Kawarimi," answered Shin, standing right behind Tsubame. "It's simple really, I use my scrolls to summon an object to substitute with any time I want."

Shin then kicked Tsubame in the back, sending her stumbling forward. Right as she turned around, she was caught in the face by Shin's fist.

"Sora-sensei, she can still win this right?" asked Kouun. "I mean, she has to have some sort of super-secret jutsu up her sleeve."

"I don't know about that. You should take a close look at the two. Look how tired Tsubame is."

"Oh my god," said Shippuu. "That Shin guy…he hasn't even broken a sweat!"

"That's impossible!" answered Kouun. _"No…Tsubame-chan."_

"_Damn, I'm running out of options here," _thought Tsubame, taking out two more scrolls. "Kuchiyose: Yoake (Summoning: Dawn), Kuchiyose: Koukon (Summoning: Dusk)!"

In Tsubame's right hand appeared a katana with a scarlet blade, in her left hand was a katana with a deep blue blade.

"So now you've gotten desperate, Tsubame-sama. You even have to use Yoake and Koukon, two of the five secret summons of the Migoto clan."

"Migoto Youshiki no Nijuu Kenjutsu (Migoto Style of Dual Blades Techniques)!"

Tsubame held the two swords in an X-formation in front of her face and charged at Shin. The older Migoto dodged, but not in time to avoid his shirt getting scratched.

"Ryuuzu (Dragon Swirl- also translates to Watch Stem it's a pun)!"

Tsubame then began to spin around with her swords sticking out, creating the effect of a tornado.

"_Two can play at this game." _"Kuchiyose: Mayonaka (Summoning: Midnight)"

Suddenly a scythe with a black blade appeared in Shin's hand. He used the blade to stop Tsubame's spinning.

"_Impossible! The five blades should only be known to clan heads! How does Shin-niisan know about them?"_

Shin then used the snath of the scythe to push Tsubame in the stomach.

"_I have to finish this!" _"Ryuutosshin (Dragon Rush)!"

Tsubame was about to charge at Shin with one of her most powerful moves, however she stepped on an explosive tag. The tag exploded right in her face, engulfing her in the explosion.

"TSUBAME!" called all of the girl's friends.

"_When did he…" _thought Sora.

"The winner is Shin Migoto!"

Shippuu and Kouun both jumped down to where the explosion occurred.

"Tsubame-chan, Tsubame-chan answer me!"

"Move out of the way!" called one of the medics. After examining her he said, "We have to get her medical attention, quick. We have a life at stake here!"

As Tsubame was carried away on a stretcher, Kouun was completely speechless, and Shippuu turned to Shin.

"You asshole, what'd you do that for!?"

"I'd had enough of her."

"She's your sister."

"And…?"

Shippuu clenched his fist and grinded his teeth. "I will crush you!" he threatened, with a look that would make an Akatsuki member piss themselves.

"All right settle down people. I want all the winners to assemble in front of what's left of the Hitsugi seal."

The winners did as they were told and Tsunade stood in front of them.

"_So four from Konoha, two from Suna, and two from Ame," _she thought.

"Alright, listen up. For the final round of the Chunin Exams, you will be watched by the daiymo from several of our allies. You'll each be representing the strengths of your countries. So I want you all to fight without holding back. The finals will be held in one month."

"Why's that?" asked Kouun.

"It's the amount of time needed for all the preparations to be completed. Also it's time for you guys to get some training done. In your battles up to this point, you've been fighting unknown enemies. Here is your chance to create strategies based on what you've learned today. Now before I dismiss you, I want you to draw a numbered paper from this box."

Anko went around with the box and each person drew a number.

"Now that your done Ibiki will take inventory."

"Alright, first: Kabuki."

"I've got number 5."

"Kouun Raiden."

"It's 1."

"Suishou."

"6."

"Yamamaru Areno."

"7."

"Koushi Eeteru."

"I got 2."

"Shippuu Uzumaki."

"Number 4."

"Shin Migoto."

"3."

"And finally Hachuumaru Kusuburu."

"I got number 8."

"Ok, then, these will be deciding your match-ups."

"WHAT!"

"The first match will be Kouun Raiden vs. Koushi Eeteru. The second match will be Shin Migoto vs. Shippuu Uzumaki. Match three will be Kabuki vs. Suishi. The final match is Yamamaru Areno vs. Hachuumaru Kusuburu."

"_So I'm goin' last, huh?" _thought Hachuumaru.

"_A chance to show my skills to the world!" _thought Kabuki.

"_Waste of time," _thought Suisho.

"_So I'll be getting revenge for what he did to Shippuu," _thought Kouun.

"_Che, fighting another brat," _thought Yamamaru.

"_Perfect!" _thought Koushi. _"Just the guy I wanted to fight."_

"_Interesting," _thought Shin.

"_Don't worry Tsubame," _thought Shippuu. _"I'll avenge you!"_

"We'll be watching your matches and assessing your abilities. If you show the right moves, even if you lose, then you can become a chunin. But make the tournament last for the viewing pleasure of everyone attending, okay? Now then, you're all dismissed!"

Shippuu was about to leave the building when Sora stopped him.

"Shippuu how are you going to prepare for your match?"

"I was thinking of reading my brother's scrolls."

"No no, that won't do. Not if you're gonna be fighting Shin in the first round. Buckle up Shippuu, and meet me at the hot springs in three days. You and I are gonna be training together!"

END CHAPTER

Whew, done with the Prelims. I'll have you know that while I was writing this chapter, I had Shawty Get Loose stuck in my head.

The finals are to be held in one month, and Sora has offered to train Shippuu. Find hout how that goes in the next chapter: **Hell's Training**

Until Then!


	20. Hell's Training

THREE DAYS LATER AT THE LEAF HOT SPRINGS

"So Sora-sensei, what kind of training did you have in mind?" asked Shippuu.

"It's simple, you're gonna learn how to walk on water. And this is the perfect place to learn."

"So what do I have to do?"

"This is basically a step further from the wall climbing remember that last time you had a solid object for your chakra to adhere to. This time you'll have to adhere your chakra to the ground beneath the water. This is going to be twice as hard as before, you up for it?"

"Hell yeah!" called Shippuu cheerily, gathering his chakra to his feet. However, the orange-haired preteen barely walked three steps before falling into the hot spring.

"HOLY SHIT THAT'S HOT!!!!"

"Did I forget to mention that the water's a relaxing 65°C (150°F)."

"I THINK THAT'S AN IMPORTANT DETAIL!"

"Well, I have some important business to attend to, so call me when you're done," said Sora, poofing off somewhere.

"Alright then! I'll impress Sensei with my impressive abilities! Yahoo!"

This time Shippuu fell after taking four steps.

"FUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!"

MEANWHILE AT THE RAIDEN HOUSEHOLD

"All right Kouun, are you ready for some serious training?" asked Kouun's father.

"Yessir, Father-sensei!" Kouun answered with a slight chuckle.

"Take this seriously!" called Kouun's father, kicking the preteen in the face. "Now listen, you're gonna be fighting in the Chunin Exam, so you're gonna have to learn some stronger moves. Remember, Haru got promoted on his first try."

"_No pressure."_

"First, I'm going to teach you on of my favorite long range jutsu, Rakurai (Thunderbolt)."

"Sounds kickass. Let's do it, Father!"

"Alright, first you…"

THREE HOURS LATER AT THE HOT SPRING

"Finally made it!" said Shippuu standing in, or should I say on, the center of the hot spring. "It took three long hours of third degree burns , but I finally did it! Now to find Sensei! YO SORA-SENSEI!"

Shippuu didn't get a response and yelled again. No response again.

"Damn that sensei. Now I'm gonna have to look for him!"

ELSEWHERE

Sora was sitting in a tree "examining" girls in the bath.

"_Heehee, this really is the best place to train. So many busty beauties. Blonds, brunettes, and so much more. Woah, that one's gotta be at least 34-22-32, heehee."_

Sora then snapped out of his perversion when he heard the words "Sora-sensei."

"_Oh crap, Shippuu, you're gonna blow my cover!"_

"Sensei, what the heck are you doing in that tree?"

Then the attention of every woman in the hot spring swapped to the closest tree, which, unfortunately, Sora was in.

"_Shiiiiiiiiiiiiit!"_

Then began the rain of soap, buckets, and any other miscellaneous items, including a very unfortunate squirrel, the "busty beauties" could get ahold of. Sora jumped out of the tree and smacked Shippuu in the head.

"What was that for?"

"THAT!" yelled Sora, pointing to a crowd of extremely pissed girls, who all got dressed rather quickly.

"What are they so mad about?"

"NEVER YOU FREAKIN' MIND! JUST RUN YOU SONNUVA BITCH!"

When he saw the angry crowd charge at them, Shippuu responded, "I CAN COPE WITH THAT!"

THREE HOURS LATER

"I... I think… I think we lost 'em," panted Sora.

Shippuu said nothing, he just collapsed on the ground, the adrenaline rush could only keep him running so much.

"Sensei, I hate you," said Shippuu after catching his breath. Looking around he found that they were by a popular vacation and camping spot in the village, in the forest by the riverbed.

"Yeah, I know," was Sora's bored reply. "What is it that you were calling me for?"

"Oh yeah! I finally completed the walker walking test!"

Looking at his watch, Sora said, "Geez, it only took you six and a half hours."

"HALF OF THAT WAS RUNNING AWAY BECAUSE OF YOU!"

"Sorry, sorry, well it's 6:30 so we'll camp out for tonight and start training again in the morning, got it?"

"Sure."

THE NEXT DAY

"Alright, Shippuu, now that you've learned how to walk on water, we get to the fun part of training, learning how to do jutsu."

"Sweet!"

"But first we need to find out your chakra affinity."

"Chakra affinity?"

"As you know there are five elements when it comes to jutsu: Fuuton, Katon, Suiton, Doton, and Raiton. These apply to the kind of jutsu you can use."

"So what am I?"

"We're about to find out," said Sora, taking out a piece of paper. "This paper absorbs chakra and reacts accordingly to your chakra affinity. If its's wind, it'll split in two. If it's fire, it'll turn to ashes. If it's water, it'll get soggy. If it's earth, it'll turn to dust. If it's lightning, it'll crumple up. So let's find out your chakra affinity."

Shippuu took the paper and felt his chakra going into the paper.

ELSEWHERE AT THE HOSPITAL

Akane was sitting in Tsubame's room, as her rival was lying in bed unconscious.

"_I can't believe you've become so strong. I have to catch up, for Kouun-kun."_

Then to her surprise, Tsubame woke up.

"Where am I?" she asked looking around.

"You're in the hospital."

Tsubame tried to sit up, but immediately lied back down out of pain.

"Ow! Shit!"

"The doctors said that your injuries are serious but aren't life threatening. But you shouldn't move to much for another ten days. Shin really did a number on you. What's his deal?"

"It's a long, complicated story."

"I gotta know."

"Fine, it's like this…"

BACK TO SHIPPUU AND SORA

The paper that was in Shippuu's hand was no longer there, s it had bee turned to ashes.

"Ah, so you have a fire based chakra. That'll make things easier, because I'm fire natured as well."

"So what kind of techniques will you be teaching me, Sensei?"

"Will start out with one of the most basic fire techniques, Katon: Goukakyou no Jutsu."

"Let's do it!"

"This is how you do it…"

MEANWHILE IN ONE OF THE TRAINING GROUNDS

"Yo, Ryuko-sensei, Zenpou, thanks for helping me with my training," said Hachuumaru.

"No problem, Hachuu-kun," said Ryuko. "How could we refuse your offer to teach you some anti-puppet moves?"

"Yeah man, you're representing our team in the final round. Don't screw this up," said Zenpou.

"Thanks for the vote of confidence…"

ABOUT THREE WEEKS LATER

Shippuu and Sora were sparring in their little training area. Shippuu's clothes were in tatters from the training.

The young teenager kicked at his sensei who blocked the attack. He then jumped back and threw a few shuriken. Sora dodged the ninja stars but Shippuu appeared in front of him and punched him in the chest. Sora was sent flying a few feet before turning into a log.

"_Knew it!" _thought Shippuu, jumping into a tree. _"Gotta look around. He's probably hidden in a tree somewhere, so let's try this!" _"Katon: Gokakyou no Jutsu!"

Shippuu spat out a ball of fire, burning several trees.

"Good thinking, Shippuu," said Sora jumping up in front of Shippuu. "But now good enough."

The jonin attempted to kid Shippuu, but the orange-haired teen ducked under the kick and performed an axe kick on Sora. The two fell from the tree with Shippuu's heel still on Sora's chest. Sora slammed onto the ground and coughed up a bit of blood. Then there was a huge puff of smoke, revealing that Sora was actually a three foot tall hawk.

"How'd I do Sora-sensei?" asked Shippuu, looking at his sensei, who was across the river.

"Impressive, you beat Takamura," said Sora.

"Damn right he beat me," said the hawk, Takamura. "Maybe next time I shouldn't hold back."

"The Finals are in three days. Now let's continue work on that trump card of ours. "

"Ready, Sensei!"

MEANWHILE AT THE RAIDEN HOUSEHOLD

"You've improved a lot over the last month, Kouun," said Kouun's father. "The finals will be in three days. I want you to make me proud."

"I won't disappoint you, Father."

"I know you won't and the the clan head will be watching as well, so put on a show for him."

"_Uncle Sachi will be watching, huh? This is my chance."_

MEANWHILE AT THE MIGOTO HOUSEHOLD

From her room, Tsubame was watching Shin end his solo training session. Several weapons were scattered about, each pinned to a target in a tough location to reach.

"This oughta be good," she heard Shin say. "I can't wait to hear that little kid squirm like the worm he is."

"_Shippuu, please don't show up for your match with Shin. He's really serious about this."_

THREE DAYS LATER

"Crap! I'm gonna be late!" yelled Kouun running as fast as he could through Konoha. He saw the stadium gates about to close and jumped through them. _"Whew, safe."_

Including Kouun, seven fighters were all lined up, facing the audience.

"_That's weird, Shippuu isn't here," _thought Kouun.

"_Shippuu, you followed my advice," _thought Tsubame.

"_Good, Kouun-kun arrived," _thought Akane, sitting next to Tsubame.

"I'd like to thank everyone for coming!" yelled Tsunade from the observation deck. "Without delay we will begin the Final Round!"

"You heard the lady," said Genma. "Everyone but Kouun and Koushi should go to the fighter's observation deck up those stairs."

"Hey, Genma-san, what about Shippuu, he's not here yet?" asked Kouun.

"If he doesn't show up by the time of his match, he'll be disqualified."

"_Shippuu, you'd better come. In the meanwhile, it's payback time for what Koushi did to you in the Forest of Death."_

"Kouun Raiden, let me feel it."

"Feel what?"

"The ecstasy of battle!"

Kouun and Koushi then charged at each other.

END CHAPTER

I like the way this chapter went. All the cliff hangers and stuff. And if you liked the preliminary fights, you're gonna love this next fight.

With Shippuu nowhere in sight, Kouun begins his battle with Koushi. But is there more to this teenager than meets the eye? Find out in the next chapter: **The Heat of Battle**


	21. The Heat Of Battle

Kouun and Koushi charged at each other. Kouun parried a punch from Koushi and elbowed him in the stomach. He then followed up with a kick to the ribs, then an uppercut. Kouun then jump kicked Koushi in the face. Koushi was knocked back a few feet, but he did a handspring to land back on his feet.

"_Interesting, he's improved his taijutsu," _thought Genma.

"You pack a punch, but I pack more of one!" said Koushi, wiping some blood from his chin and charging Kouun again.

Kouun backstepped a left hook and barely dodged an uppercut. He then countered with a kick to the chest, which caused the mohawked teen to step back a bit. However, Koushi punched the ground at full strength, overturning some of the ground. When he saw a huge clump of earth in front of him, Kouun jumped back as fast as he could; which was a good idea, as Koushi punched it, completely demolishing it.

"_I have to keep my distance from him," _thought Kouun. _"If he hits me with one of those punches it could really slow me down."_

"_Now that he's seen my strength, he's gonna try to keep his distance from me. Fool!" _thought Koushi, getting into a sprinter's position.

Koushi then dashed at Kouun with incredible speed. The redhead barely dodged the attack, causing Koushi to slam into the wall behind him, creating a huge crater at the impact zone.

"_Damn, I'm trying to stall for Shippuu to arrive, but at this rate, I might not survive."_

Koushi then jumped into the air with all his might, most likely aided by chakra. He tried to punch Kouun, but the redhead dodged to the center of the arena. Koushi's impact with the ground created a huge crater where Kouun once stood.

"Now now, running away isn't going to win you this fight," said Koushi. "Come on, I was so interested in you. Show me some of that Raiden pride!"

"You want me? Here, have a taste!" said Kouun throwing a few shuriken at his opponent.

Koushi dodged the shuriken and threw some of his own, but Kouun deflected them with a kunai. However, those shuriken were just a distraction for Koushi to close the gap between the two. Kouun dodged Koushi's punch by a hair, but a kick connected with his chest, knocking him back a few feet.

"_Impressive, he couldn't dodge it, so he lessened the damage by backstepping the attack. However, my kick still hit so he's bound to feel it."_

"_Damn," _thought Kouun, standing back up. _"I was afraid of this. Looks like I'm gonna need more than taijutsu to slow him down."_

"_Looks like he's finally deciding to take things seriously," _thought Koushi after noticing Kouun make a few hand seals.

"Raiton: Kagayai Denkou (Lightning Style: Shining Lightning)!

Kouun gathered lightning chakra in the palm of his hand but it exploded in a great flash of light.

"_Damn, that's dirty!" _thought everyone who hadn't closed their eyes before the flash or wasn't far enough away to not be affected.

Koushi slowly regained his eyesight, only to find that Kouun had vanished.

"_All right, where is he?" _wondered Koushi, scanning the arena. _"He's likely in one of the trees, that's the only place to hide. If that's the case then…"_

Koushi threw a kunai into every tree in the arena, but he didn't hear so much as a moan from any of the trees.

"_Then where?"_

Then, when Koushi's back was turned, Kouun jumped out of one of the trees with his Denki Sesshoku activated.

"_This oughta slow him down!" _he thought. _"Plus he doesn't know where I am so-"_

Kouun was cut off when he was smacked in the ribs by Koushi's umbrella. The redhead was sent flying halfway across the stadium, until he skidded to a stop.

"_H-how?" _he thought, coughing up some blood. _"Damn, I took a lot of damage. A few more shots like that and I'm done. I have to use long range jutsu if I'm gonna hold him off."_

"_I managed to guess that he would attack from behind. I must've taken out a couple of his ribs, so he'll be even more cautious to stay out of my range. But he's forgetting one thing!"_

Koushi threw his umbrella in the air once again making it rain senbon.

"_Shit, my ribs! I can't move fast enough!!"_

Koushi used his chakra to direct all of the needles towards Kouun. The redhead dodged the brunt of the attack but could not escape completely. Most of the right side of his body was covered in senbon. Koushi caught his umbrella as it came back down.

"_Now for the best part!" _thought Koushi.

Koushi pressed a button on the handle of his umbrella, connected to the handle via chain, causing it to shoot at Kouun. The weight of the umbrella created a massive cloud of dust to appear where it had impacted.

"_He's done," _thought Zenpou in the audience.

When the dust cleared up, it was revealed that Kouun had barely dodged the attack by rolling to the side at the last second. Koushi pressed the button on the handle once again, causing the umbrella to retract.

"_YOU'VE GOTTA BE KIDDING ME!" _screamed Kouun's mind. _"Using the Denki Sesshoku should buy Shippuu enough time to arrive for his match, so all I have to do is get close enough to use it. BUT HOW THE HELL CAN I DO THAT IF HE CAN THROW THAT GIANT UMBRELLA!?"_

"Don't die on me!" called Koushi, throwing his umbrella again.

Kouun ducked under the umbrella causing it to slam into the wall.

"_Now! While he's retracting it!" _thought Kouun charging at Koushi.

However, Koushi waved the chain, causing it to hit Kouun in his cracked rib. Kouun was lucky enough to avoid being hit by the retracting umbrella. However, the pressure applied by the chain aggravated Kouun's injury, causing him to flinch. Then Koushi didn't waste any time pressing the button again. The umbrella hit Kouun smack in the chest and sent him flying into the wall. Kouun coughed up a fair bit of blood.

"_That's it! The chain is metallic!" _thought Kouun with a smirk. _"So I can to this!"_

Kouun then activated his Denki Sesshoku and grabbed the chain. The current ran along the chain and reached Koushi. The mohawked teen was electrocuted, causing his body to get numb.

"_That oughta slow him down," _thought Kouun, taking the senbon out of his body.

"Damnit, damnit, damnit, DAMNIT!!! I AM NOT GOING TO LOSE HERE!!!!"

Koushi's chakra then swelled massively.

"_Damn, I forgot about that," _thought Kouun.

"_That's how he beat me," _thought Zenpou_. "Let's see how Kouun copes with that technique."_

"LET'S HAVE SOME FUN!" yelled Koushi, charging at Kouun.

Kouun barely dodged Koushi's berserker charge. Koushi collided with the wall, creating another crater. Kouun moved away from Koushi as fast as he could. Koushi then bit his thumb and wiped the blood across his umbrella. There was a puff of smoke, and when it cleared, Koushi was holding a giant bisento, which was even bigger than him.

"_YOU'RE FUCKING KIDDING ME!" _thought Kouun.

Using both hands Koushi swang the massive weapon as fast as he could, creating a gust that made Kouun fall over.

"_BULLSHIT! That weapon is so heavy that just waving it like that creates a gust. Just how strong is this guy?"_

Kouun didn't have time to continue thinking as Koushi attacked with the bisento. He managed to avoid being cleaved in half, however Koushi hit Kouun in the chest with the blunt side of the weapon. He then punched in the cheek, knocking him halfway across the arena again.

"_Shit, he's too strong!"_

Koushi charged with the bisento again and tried to stab Kouun. The preteen dodged the attack, but Koushi sped up his attacks. Kouun couldn't help but get cut a few times. Koushi then tried to cut Kouun in half again, but Kouun stepped back at the last second. However, he was unable to avoid being slashed across the chest.

"_Shit, I can't worry about slowing him down anymore. From now on, I'm in it to win!"_

Kouun jumped back to get out of Koushi's range. He then made a few handseals.

"Raiton: Chikyuu Shougeki (Lightning Style: Earth Impact)!"

Kouun slammed his palms on the ground, sending electricity coursing through the ground. It reached Koushi and electrocuted him.

"_Not yet!" _thought Kouun, taking out a summoning scroll. "Kuchiyose: Raiton: Rakurai (Summoning: Lightning Style: Thunderbolt)!"

Kouun wiped his blood on the scroll and threw it to where Koushi was. Then a burst of lightning came out, engulfing Koushi. The mohawked teen fell over, his body charred from the lightning.

"_Sorry Shippuu, but my life outweighs your disqualification."_

Then Kouun felt a chill in the back of his neck. He then turned around to see Koushi standing back up.

"_Damn it! Is there no limit to how much a berserker can stand? His body should be failing right now."_

However, upon second inspection, Koushi was somewhat different. His irises and pupils were gone and his canines were elongated.

"So you managed to defeat Koushi," Koushi said.

"What?"

"My name is Omoi Eeteru, and I'm Koushi's split personality. Part of me comes out when he goes into berserker mode."

"Split personality? You mean like bipolar?"

"Exactly. Allow me to tell you of Koushi's horrendous past."

"_Great, a back story."_

"Our village's leader, no, our God, conducted experiments on some of our more talented youths. Koushi was one of those youths that was experimented on. But there were a few side effects to all of that physical and mental trauma. One of those side effects is me."

"That's pretty messed up." _"That explains his insane physical strength, though."_

"Yeah, I know. However, there was another side effect."

Koushi's, or rather Omoi's, body began to contort. His nails grew into claws, his ears became like wolf ears, his pupils returned, and a coat of fur grew on his torso.

"WHAT THE FUCK!?"

**"Now it's time to have some fun!"**

Omoi charged at Kouun and punched him in the face, hurling him across the stadium, untill he crashed into the wall.

"_Of course, he's a wolf-man now. So he's a crapload faster now. Not only that but hiding'll do no good, he can just sniff me out. What am I gonna do?"_

Kouun had no time to come up with a strategy, as Omoi jumped to his location in a single bound. He grabbed Kouun's hair and threw him all the way across the stadium, sending him crashing into the wall opposite.

Omoi then made a few handseals, **"****Fuuton****: ****Sonikku****Houkou**** (Wind Style: Sonic Howl)!"**

Omoi howled, breathing out a huge gust of wind. The blast of wind slammed into Kouun, pushing him further into the wall and creating a huge crater.

"_Damn, that was one hell of a yell. Wait a second! He's a wolf, so not only is his sense of smell increased, but also his sense of hearing! Which means…"_

"Ninpou: Ikazuchi (Ninja Art: Thunder)!"

Kouun then used the technique that he had used to beat Haruna with. The chakra amplified yell affected almost everyone in the audience, but since Omoi's sense of hearing was amplified, it affected him even worse. Then, while the wolf-man was stunned, Kouun charged him with a Denki Sesshoku.

**"DAMN YOU!"** yelled Omoi as he was electrocuted.

"_NOW!" _thought Kouun, jumping as far as he could away from his foe. He then activated an explosive tag that he had set on Omoi's chest.

After the smoke from the explosion had cleared Omoi had reverted back to Koushi and was now unconscious.

"The winner is Kouun Raiden!"

"YEEEEEAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!"

END CHAPTER

The first fight in the final round is over, with Kouun victorious. Next is Shippuu's fight with Shin, but he has still not arrived. Will Shippuu arrive in time for his fight, or will he be disqualified? Find out in the next chapter: **Late****!**


	22. Friends

"Thank you all!" called Kouun to the audience, who was applauding his spectacular battle. _"Damn it, where's Shippuu?"_

"YO! NICE FIGHT KOUUN!" yelled a voice from far away.

The voice came from on top of the entrance gates. There were two silhouettes, one slightly shorter than Kouun, and another the size of a teenager. The two poofed down, revealing Shippuu and Sora. Shippuu was wearing a black jacket, black pants, and a new headband. He also had fingerless gloves now.

"Kouun, that fight was amazing! Nice job!"

"Shippuu, how long've you been there?"

"A little before you used that flashing jutsu."

"SO YOU WERE THERE ALMOST THE WHOLE FIGHT!?"

"Pretty much."

"I WAS TRYING TO BUY TIME FOR YOU TO ARRIVE!! YOU ALMOST GOT ME KILLED OUT THERE!!"

"I appreciate the gesture, but it wasn't really necessary."

"I'M GOING TO FRICKIN' KILL YOU!" yelled Kouun, grabbing Shippuu by the collar.

"What was that about almost being killed?"

Kouun stopped attacking Shippuu to process what he had just said. He then nearly fainted from exhaustion.

"Sheesh."

"Anyway, I've noticed that you've got a change of clothes on you."

"Yeah, Sora-sensei's training is pretty brutal. My old clothes were all torn up."

"I hope it was enough, this Shin guy is strong. Be careful out there."

"Don't worry. I'm going to win."

"Will Shin Migoto, come down to the arena?" called Genma. "Kouun get out of here."

"_Shippuu, why did you come?" _thought Tsubame.

"What do you think about his chances, Kouun?" asked Hachuumaru when Kouun arrived at the fighters' area.

"I don't know, but when he told me that he would win, I couldn't help but believe him. Something just seems… different about him."

"And BEGIN!"

Shippuu started off the fight by punching at Shin, however the older teenager grabbed Shippuu's fist. He then used Shippuu's momentum to throw the orange-haired teen over his shoulder. When Shippuu landed on his feet, Shin took out a summoning scroll and used his Shi no Kazaguruma. Shippuu managed to avoid being hit by the weapon by jumping to the side. Shippuu then made several hand seals.

"Katon: Goukakyou no Jutsu!"

Shippuu spat out a fireball at Shin, but the Migoto dodged the technique. But while Shin was distracted by the attack, Shippuu had charged at him. However, the older teen used the palm of his hand to deflect Shippuu's punch. Shippuu recovered in time to avoid a kick from Shin. He then jumped back out of Shin's range.

"Impressive," said Shin. "I knew I hadn't been able to get a good concept of your abilities, seeing as you were injured during your preliminary fight."

"Yeah, but you're holding back."

"Oh, you could tell?"

"When you fought Tsubame, your Shi no Kazaguruma was twice as fast. You knew Tsubame would be tough, so you went all out from the get-go."

Shin merely smiled a bit at this comment.

"You asshole, are you saying I'm not a worthy opponent?" chuckled the orange haired teen.

"I apologize. You didn't seem like the analytical type at the time. Maybe I should start taking this seriously."

Shin then took out another summoning scroll and used his Buki no Mai (Dance of Weapons). This time, Shippuu was unable to avoid being hit by the weapons. However, he disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"_He was using a shadow clone the whole time! But then where's the real one?"_

Suddenly a sheet used for camouflage sprung up from the ground and on Shin's face. His chin was then met by Shippuu's knee, causing him to fall backwards.

"_Incredible! Shippuu managed to land a hit on him! Tsubame-chan could barely scratch Shin before!" _thought Kouun.

"_No way!" _thought Tsubame.

Shin threw the camouflage blanket off of him and stood back up, spitting out some blood.

"Not bad, you planned this out pretty well," said Shin.

"I told you before that I would crush you," Shippuu replied. "And I meant it."

"Let's see how you do against this!"

Shin summoned two windmill shuriken and used the Nijuu Shi no Kazaguruma. Shippuu dodged the two shuriken by jumping into the air, only to notice that Shin had copied Tsubame's strategy and attached wire to the shuriken. Shippuu quickly created a shadow clone to punch him out of the way of the weapons. Shippuu then used the Goukakyou no Jutsu on the wires, causing them to catch on fire. Shin quickly let go to avoid being burned.

MEANWHILE IN THE AUDIENCE

"_Shippuu, he's totally different from how he was a month ago," _thought Tsubame.

"Looks like my training really was fruitful," said Sora.

"Sora-sensei, you're here? Just what did you teach him?"

"All I taught him were some basics stuff: ninjutsu, taijutsu, and advanced chakra control."

"So why is he so… different?"

"Shippuu has what I like to call, lack of focus. Usually he seems pretty dimwitted, but in actuality, he's pretty damn smart. He usually can't concentrate, but when it comes to fighting, his brain is kicking into overdrive. And now he's fighting with one goal in mind, 'beat Shin for Tsubame.'"

"_Shippuu…"_

BACK AT THE ARENA

"I'm going to end this," said Shin with a look of frustration. "Kuchiyose: Mayonaka."

Shin summoned the black scythe that he used in his fight with Tsubame.

"_There it is, Shin's strongest jutsu," _thought Shippuu.

Shippuu fired another fireball at Shin, but the black-haired teen used Mayonaka to clear a path through the flames. Then, with great speed, Shin closed the gap between the two genin and cut at Shippuu. The orange-haired teen backflipped out of the way of the attack, only a few of his hairs getting cut in the process.

"_I didn't say I wanted a haircut yet!"_

"Shippuu-kun, do you want to know what sets the Five Blades of the Migoto Family apart from other weapons?" asked Shin.

"Go ahead, enlighten me."

"They're made of a special material that absorbs chakra! Even Tsubame-sama wasn't aware of this!"

Shin then charged at Shippuu once again. Shippuu threw several kunai at the older teen, but Mayonaka cut through them like a knife through butter.

"_He wasn't lying about the whole absorbing chakra thing!"_

Shippuu jumped above Shin just before he swung his mighty weapon. The orange-haired teen landed right behind Shin. He then kicked Shin in the back, but the attack didn't do much damage. Shippuu jumped back and made a few handseals.

"Katon: Hosenka no Jutsu (Fire Style: Phoenix Immortal Fire Jutsu)! "

Shippuu spat out several small fireballs at Shin. However, none of them hit the intended target, instead they impacted around him, creating a smokescreen.

"_Hmph, parlor tricks," _thought Shin, using Mayonaka to blow away to smoke.

However, to his surprise, he saw Shippuu charging at him with his Chakra Yoroi activated. Shin jumped out of the way just in time to avoid being punched and becoming the center of a crater with a ten-foot diameter.

"_When Shippuu's strength is augmented by the Chakra Yoroi, his strength is almost on par with Koushi's," _thought Sora up in the audience.

"_Gotcha," _thought Shippuu, smirking. "Katon: Gokakyou no Jutsu!"

Shippuu fired a fireball at the airborne Shin, hitting his target dead-on.

"_He took a Gokakyou right to the face!" _thought Hachuumaru. _"Shippuu won!"_

"_Is it really going to be so easy?" _wondered Kouun.

Kouun's doubt was well-placed because instead of a charred body, a charred log fell from the spot where Shin had been hit.

"_Damn, I hadn't forgotten about the Kuchiyose: Kawarimi technique, but I didn't think he could do it so fast! Where is he now?"_

Shippuu looked around for his opponent but was then smacked in the back by the back of Shin's scythe. Shippuu managed to land on his feet but could not avoid being caught in the stomach by the blade of the scythe. Shin used the scythe's shape to his advantage and slammed Shippuu into a nearby wall.

"_Is this really a fight between two genin?" _thought several people in the audience, including Tsunade herself.

Shin pulled his scythe from the wall so that Shippuu could fall to the ground. However, the persistent teen was still standing.

"But how? You should be severly injured at the very least!"

"That'd be the case, if I wasn't wearing armor underneath my jacket!"

"Bastard!"

"That really could've done me in. Just what is it with you?"

"I guess I got carried away, you really are a great opponent. Even stronger than Tsubame-sama."

"Yeah, speaking of which. Why did you try to kill Tsubame?"

"Are you sure you want to know?"

"Most people would want to know why their teammate is being targeted by some maniac."

"Fine then, its because of jus sanguinis."

"Jus sangiunis? What does that mean?"

"It means, right of blood. In the Migoto clan, there is a condition to become the clan head. Once in every generation a Migoto is born with white hair. That Migoto is destined to become the next clan leader, and you know what color Tsubame-sama's hair is."

"_Half white, half black." _"But why try to kill her?"

"Simple, because _I _should be the rightful heir to the Migoto clan! _Me _not _her_! Not only am I the eldest, I am stronger by far! I will not have the prideful Migoto clan led by someone weaker than me! The strongest Migoto should be the one to lead the clan! Don't you agree?"

"That is a valid point, but it's your family's tradition! And that doesn't give you an excuse to try to kill your own _sister_!"

"Oh, she's used to it by know. I've tried to kill her on several occasions!"

Upon hearing this sentence, Tsubame remembered all the times the brother who used to love her had tried to kill her. Recalling all those painful memories had caused Tsubame to choke up a little.

"So _you're _the reason Tsubame's always so reserved? Why she won't let anyone get that close to her?"

"Yeah, I guess seeing someone who loved her so much try to kill her would do that to someone. My guess is, she probably doesn't trust even you, her own teammate."

"_Shippuu, that's…"_

"You're sick. Older brothers are supposed to protect their siblings!"

"Is that what your brother told you before abandoning you for two and a half years? He's a lot like me if you ask me."

"SHUT UP! DO NOT COMPARE TRASH LIKE YOURSELF TO MY BROTHER! A FAMILY MURDERING ASSHOLE LIKE YOU IS THE WORST KIND OF SCUM!"

"If I have to sacrifice someone for the good of the clan, then so be it, even if that person is my sister. The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. Am I right?"

"I DON'T GIVE A SHIT ABOUT YOU OR YOUR FUCKING CLAN TRADITIONS!!! ALL I CARE ABOUT IS THAT YOU'VE PERMANENTLY SCARRED ONE OF MY PRECIOUS FRIENDS!!! AND I WON'T FORGIVE YOU FOR THAT!!!"

"_Shippuu…"_

"If that's the case, then COME AT ME!"

Shippuu flared his chakra to the max and used the advanced Chakra Yoroi that he had used in the preliminaries.

"Shinko Chakra Yoroi!"

In the blink of an eye, Shippuu appeared in front of Shin. He went for a punch, and Shin blocked it with his scythe. However, Shippuu's punch was so strong, he punched through the scythe and plowed his fist right into Shin's chest, knocking him halfway across the arena.

"_Impossible! He broke Mayonaka!" _thought Shin holding his broken weapon.

Shippuu then charged at Shin again, but the older teenager summoned a shield. Shippuu's fist impacted with the shield, creating a fairly large dent in it. However, as a result Shippuu's knuckles were bleeding badly.

"_Lucky me, it looks like he broke his left hand against my shield!" _"Shippuu Uzumaki! I will end this now!"

Shin forced a great bit of his chakra into the broken piece of his Mayonaka, causing the blade to expand.

"_I have to focus the Shinko Chakra Yoroi into my right fist," _thought Shippuu.

Shin tried to slash Shippuu, but the superpowered teen ducked under the blade and punched Shin in the chest. Shin was sent crashing into the stadium wall. However, at that time, Shippuu's Shinko Chakra Yoroi cancelled itself, causing Shippuu to fall to his knees. However, determined as ever to win, he stood back up.

"Why, why are you willing to go so damn far!?" asked Shin, struggling to get up.

"_Yes, Shippuu, why?" _wondered Tsubame.

"Because, Tsubame is my precious comrade, and one of my closest friends. And I will risk my life for my friends!"

Upon hearing those words, Tsubame felt the joy of comradeship for the first time since Shin had first tried to kill her. The candles of friendship had been rekindled inside of her. And it felt so good that she could cry. And that's exactly what she did.

"Friendship, that's what you're fighting for?"

"Damn straight, I'M CHOOSING THE PATH THAT REQUIRES _NO_ SACRIFICES! BECAUSE MY FRIENDS ARE WORTH IT!"

"THEN LET'S SEE HOW STRONG YOUR DEVOTION TO YOUR FRIENDS REALLY IS!"

Shippuu took out a kunai and charged. Shin did the same with his scythe fragment. The two crossed in the center of the arena and landed where the other had stood before, samurai style.

"_Bastard," _thought Shippuu.

Then Shin fell to the ground, succumbing to the wound Shippuu had inflicted on him during the exchange.

"The winner is Shippuu Uzumaki!"

"He did it! He really did it!" called Hachuumaru in total disbelief.

"_He's so strong now," _thought Kouun clutching the guardrail of the fighter's waiting area.

Kouun jumped down to congratulate Shippuu on his victory, but something Shippuu had whispered to him when he got there completely surprised him.

"What do you mean he let you win?" asked Kouun.

"At that last exchange, when we had crossed by each other, he didn't attack me."

"Seriously? You must be imagining it."

"I don't know…" _"What the hell was he thinking?"_

Shin, lying on the ground silently thought to himself, _"Friendship, huh? Sounds nice. Thank you, Shippuu Uzumaki."_

Shippuu then faced his fist towards the audience and, giving a thumbs up, shouted, "TSUBAME! THERE'S NOTHING TO WORRY ABOUT ANYMORE! WE… WE TRULY ARE YOU FRIENDS!!!"

Up in the audience, Tsubame was still crying tears of joy and she silently said to herself, "Shippuu, you idiot, you're point to the wrong part of the audience.

END CHAPTER

This chapter was fun as hell to write. Personally, I really enjoyed writing this chapter and I hope you enjoyed reading it. Yeah, I know it got a little sappy towards the end, but, hey, it's a Naruto fanfic after all. Anyway…

After an arduous battle, Shippuu finally defeated Shin. Kouun and Shippuu will be fighting in the second round. But now its time for Kabuki to fight against Suishou. Who will win this battle? Find out in the next chapter: **Sand vs Rain.**


	23. Sand VS Rain

"Alright, will Suishou and Kabuki come down to the main arena?"

The two genin from Sunagakure and Amegakure made their way to the arena.

"Finally, it's my chance to shine," said Kabuki.

"This is such a waste of time," complained Suishou.

"BEGIN!"

Suishou disappeared and reappeared behind Kabuki in the blink of an eye. She was about to stab him through the back just as she did with Kasumi, but Kabuki had anticipated this attack and stepped out of range.

"You won't beat me that easily!"

Suishou ducked under a backhand from Kabuki, then tried to cut the Sand-nin's feet off. However, the sand ninja jumped over the blade and kicked Suishou in the jaw. While the Ame ninja was stunned from the attack, Kabuki kneed her in the stomach. He then jumped into the air and threw a few kunai. However, these kunai were merely to pin the kunoichi to the ground.

"So then, is this fight still a waste of your time?" asked Kabuki. _"I was sooo cool right there!"_

Suishou answered by cutting off her robe, revealing an actually fairly good figure exemplified by her armor, only covering her chest.

"You're actually not that bad, however…"

Before Kabuki had time to respond to her complement, he found that Suishou was behind him, and that she had cut off his arm just below the elbow. Kabuki had no choice but to scream in pain.

"That ends this fight, Kabuki-san."

"Just kidding!" Kabuki teased childishly.

To the amazement of Suishou, and most of the audience, Kabuki's severed arm turned into smoke!

"_What in the world?" _thought Shippuu. _"That's not like the smoke given off by a destroyed shadow clone."_

The smoke, which was previously Kabuki's arm, then reconnected with his nub and created a new arm.

"Jesus, that was traumatic," chuckled Kabuki. "There are kids in the audience you know."

"_It must be a genjutsu," _thought Suishou. _"But I can't rule out the possibility that it's some sort of special jutsu." _

This time Kabuki took the initiative to attack. He tried to kick Suishou, but the Ame kunoichi ducked under the attack. However, with his other foot he aimed a kick right at Suishou's chest. The swordswoman was able to block the attack with her sword. Kabuki then jumped out of range, but not quickly enough. We was then cut in half by Suishou. However, to Suishou's shock, the sand ninja reformed again.

"_Is this some sort of genjutsu?"_

"Do you like it?" asked Kabuki. "It's called a Kemuri Bunshin (Smoke Clone), part of my Kekkei Genki, Kitaiton (Gas Release). As you probably guessed, I'm not the real Kabuki."

"So I've been fighting a clone this whole time," Suishou deduced.

"That's right, but even with that knowledge, you can't win."

"And why's that?"

"What's the main weakness of solid clones? It's pretty obvious, all solid clone jutsus are destroyed after one or two good hits. However, that's not the case with my the Smoke Clone. Usually its solid, but I can turn it into smoke form whenever I feel like it."

"Basically you can switch it between tangible and intangible?"

"Yup, and I also spied on your training with this jutsu. And I figured out that your fighting style revolves almost exclusively on kenjutsu! Basically, I'm the worst possible opponent for you to face!"

The Kabuki clone then, quite literally, threw a punch at Suishou. The kunoichi blocked the projectile fist with her sword. However, the fist then turned into a cloud of smoke and dissipated. However, it reformed into another fist aimed at Suishou's back. The Ame ninja took a punch to the back. The smoke clone then disappeared in a puff of smoke and reformed where his arm was.

"Kitaiton: Kuroryuu (Black Dragon)!"

The Kabuki then transformed into a giant dragon made of smoke. The dragon charged at Suishou, but she was able to jump away in the nick of time.

"_That thing is made of smoke, if I'm eaten by it I'll be trapped in poisonous carbon monoxide!"_

The giant dragon turned around and used its tail to smack Suishou into the stadium wall.

"Give it up! As a ninja relying on kenjutsu you can't defeat me!" ordered the dragon.

"You're right, as a kunoichi I can't win, but there's more to my kenjutsu than meets the eye."

"Really? What's that supposed to mean?"

"You should be aware that the Land of Rain borders three of the great shinobi nations: Earth, Wind, and Fire. Because of this, the Land of Rain was the site of several battlegrounds. The country was frequently war torn, leading it to not have a very good ruling body. As a result there are several Missing-Nin from Amegakure."

"Yeah, lots of people already know that."

"You fool, the lack of government not only leads to the creation of Missing-Nin, but also a shelter for them as well. There are no government officials to track them down, so they can just easily hide out there. But they don't necessarily have to be ninjas."

Suishou then forced her chakra through her sword, forming a blade made out of chakra that was at least five feet long.

"That jutsu! That's a technique used by the samurai of the Land of Iron!"

"That's right, my parents were rogue samurai who escaped to Amegakure, where I was instructed in the way of the ninja by the Ame ninja academy, and the way of the Samurai by my parents! You said that your technique couldn't be destroyed by physical means, right? Let's see how it fairs against a blade of chakra!"

Suishou then charged at the dragon, slicing it horizontally in half like a knife through hot butter. She then noticed a tree that had a trail of smoke leading into it, where the real Kabuki was supplying the smoke for his various jutsu. Suishou followed the path, chakra sword prepared.

"_Shit!" _mentally cursed Kabuki. "Kataiton: Shiroi Bakudan (White Bombshell)!"

Kabuki gathered Gas chakra in the palm of his hand, forming a compacted ball of smoke. He then threw the attack in Suishou's direction, causing it to explode in a massive cloud of smoke. However, all of the smoke was blown away when Suishou changed the shape of her chakra weapon from a blade to a giant fan-like object.

"_I have to use one of my ultimate techniques!" _thought Kabuki. "Kitaiton: Ookiku Shiroikumo (Massive White Cloud)!"

Out of Kabuki's mouth emerged a large cloud of gas which engulfed the entire arena.

"Now for: Katon: Hosoku Hibane (Fire Release: Supplemental Spark)! Ougi: Hakai no Kyodai Na Honoo (Secret Art: Enormous Flame of Destruction)"

Kabuki ignited the cloud of smoke filling the arena with a flame spark. All of the gas combusted, creating a massive explosion spanning across the arena. Debris even flew into the audience, where some advanced ninja shielded civilians from injury. After a moment, the smoke from the explosion cleared, revealing that the battle arena had been totally scorched, the trees had burned to a crisp and the ground had been charred and blackened. However, there was another thing wrong with the battleground, Suishou had disappeared.

"What the hell? Where is she!?" wondered Kabuki, now exposed due to his attack destroying all of the cover.

His question was soon answered when he saw a silhouette quickly move from the ground to the sky. The silhouette had belonged to Suishou, who had used her chakra sabre to dig a makeshift trench in the ground. In the air, Suishou changed her weapon from a chakra blade to a giant mallet. The weapon came down hard, crushing Kabuki into the ground.

"The winner is Suishou!" declared Genma.

"_Impressive, she'll be tough to beat," _thought Kouun.

"_Not bad, I should watch out for her," _thought Shippuu. _"But before that, I need to get through my fight with Kouun in the next round. And before _that _I should watch Hachuu's fight."_

"Now then, will Hachuumaru Kusuburu and Yamamaru Areno step into the arena?"

"Wait a sec," called Hachuumaru to Genma. "I'd like to forfeit the match."

This statement arose mumbling amongst the crowd, from people who were disappointed that someone would give up after coming so far, to people who were excited for the semi-final matches to begin. Shippuu, in particular was especially curious.

"If you're certain about it, then whatever," was Genma's reply. "Yamamaru Areno wins the match by default. There will be a brief intermission before the semi-finals begin."

"Hachuu, what's going on?" Shippuu asked his friend. "You're just giving up like that?"

"Yeah, sorry, but I've got something I _really_ need to take care of. I'll be rooting for you though."

With those words Hachuumaru left. A few minutes later, Zenpou approached Shippuu.

"Shippuu, did Hachuumaru tell you why he gave up?"

"No, all he told me was that there was something important he needed to take care of, and he just took off."

"That's strange, he never told me about anything. Plus he even made me and Ryuuko-sensei help him with anti-puppeteer techniques."

"Something's up, and I don't like it. How much time do we have before the semi-finals start?"

"I'd say around ten more minutes."

"Good, he didn't leave that long ago, maybe we can catch up to him and see what's going down."

"Alright, let's go!"

END CHAPTER

After an incredible battle, Suishou defeated Kabuki to move on to the next round. However, Hachuumaru gave up before his fight even began, saying something about important business. Shippuu and Zenpou trail their friend to find out exactly what this business is, but what awaits them? Find out next time: **A ****Mysterious Shadow**


	24. A Mysterious Shadow

Shippuu and Zenpou had decided to take a shortcut to get to Hachuumaru's house by cutting through the forest.

"We should be arriving at his house in about two to three minutes," said Zenpou. "We'll quickly get our answer, then head back for your big fight with Kouun."

"Are you sure you know whih way we're going?"

"Of course! We always have our team meetings near his place."

"If you say so…"

MEANWHILE A THE CHUNIN EXAM STADIUM

"God damn it, where _is _that dumbass?" wondered Kouun aloud, standing in the center of the battle arena.

"The match is set to begin in seven minutes," announced Genma. "If he doesn't arrive in that time, he'll have a brief grace period, and if he still doesn't arrive, he'll be disqualified."

"_Come on…"_

MEANWHILE IN THE KONOHA FORESTS

"There he is!" called Shippuu, noticing that they had caught up to their green-haired friend.

"Huh? It's you guys?" wondered Hachuumaru, noticing that he had been pursued. "Don't you have a match to attend to, Shippuu?"

"That won't start for another few minutes, but this is more important, what's wrong with you? I heard from Zenpou that you even went through specific training to win the tournament, so why?"

"Wow, I'm flattered that you think this is more important," chuckled Hachuumaru. "But it's really nothing you should worry about, I'm fine."

"You're lying," said Shippuu. "I've known you almost six years, so I can tell when you're lying, Hachuu."

"Come on, Greeny," urged Zenpou. "We don't have a whole lot of time here, so just tell us what's going on!"

"I'll tell you this much, you guys have always been a bit too nosy for your own good!"

Hachuumaru then threw a kunai at the branch his two friends were standing on. The two teens jumped back in time to avoid the explosion caused by the explosive tag attached to the knife.

"If you want to know what's up, you're going to have to beat it out of me!"

"Zenpou, it looks like we're not going to make that match," pointed out Shippuu. "You cool with that?"

"You can go on back if you feel like it," replied the blond haired teen. "But I'm gonna get some answers here."

"I wouldn't have it any other way."

Shippuu then jumped off the tree branch. He then ricocheted off the stem of nearby tree, propelling him to his green haired friend. Hachuumaru barely dodged Shippuu's punch, but recoiled in time to kick the teen into the air. He then jumped after Shippuu, grabbing him by the collar and throwing him back down to the thick branch.

However, Zenpou saw the opportunity to attack, and jump-kicked Hachuumaru. The teen fell next to Shippuu, but landed on his feet, only to find himself intercepted by the carrot top. Shippuu kicked him hard, sending him crashing into the stem of the tree.

"Now, tell us why you gave up on the Chunin Exams!" ordered Zenpou, landing next to Shippuu.

"I'm not finished yet!" retorted Hachuumaru as he turned into a log.

"_Damn, where is he?" _wondered Shippuu. _"Knowing Hachuu, he's going to resort to using dirty tactics since he can't use any Doton here. But this area puts _us_ at a disadvantage as well: Zenpou can't use his advanced speed due to the lack of good footing, and without a source of water, he can't use any useful Suiton. Hachuumaru is bound to know all or most of Zenpou's techniques, so searching for a place with water will be out of the question. And to make matters worse, Zenpou and I have never worked together. Damn it all!"_

Shippuu ducked under a kunai that came from the shadows, only to find an explosive note on it. The two teens jumped as far as possible from the bomb, only to find that the tag was a dud and didn't explode.

Zenpou cursed as a kunai penetrated his the flesh of his arm. However, he looked over to his side only to find that Hachuumaru was dashing towards Shippuu. The carrot-top took a punch from Hachuumaru and was knocked into a tree branch several meters below.

MEANWHILE AT THE EXAM STADIUM

"Sorry to folks who bet on him, but Shippuu Uzumaki has run out of time," announced Genma. "The winner by default is Kouun Raiden. Now, will Yamamaru Areno and Suishou come down to the arena?"

"_Where the hell is he?" _wondered Kouun as he exited the arena. _"I'm going after him, and he's dead meat when I catch up to him."_

Kouun asked for directions as to which way his friend went, and upon finding out, took off to give Shippuu a piece of his mind.

MEANWHILE IN THE KONOHA FORESTS

Zenpou and Hachuumaru were exchanging blows on a tree branch. Hachuumaru blocked a kick from Zenpou and countered with a punch to the face. He then followed up with a knee to the stomach and an arm chop to the throat. Hachuumaru was about to deliver another blow, when he was interrupted by Shippuu's fist. The orange-haired teen had activated his Chakra Yoroi.

"Hachuumaru, are you ready to tell us why you're fighting us?" asked Shippuu.

"Like hell I am!" said Hachuumaru, making a few handseals.

Shippuu charged at his friend and connected with a powerful punch. However, what his fist connected with didn't feel like flesh and bone. Instead, it was gooey and mushy, and whatever it was, it was melting around his arm.

"_It looks like Shippuu's caught in one of Greeny's genjutsu," _thought Zenpou. _"He must think that by getting Shippuu out of the fight, he'll lose all legitimate threats. However, I never explained to anyone, what the driving force behind Sumiyaka-style speed is."_

Zenpou then gathered his chakra to his feet, and jumped. However, this wasn't a normal jump, in fact it was more like a rocket taking off. Zenpou landed on a tree stem, then took off again to another. He repeated this process, building momentum with each bound. When he felt he had gathered enough momentum, he shot towards Hachuumaru. The green-haired teen had hardly any time to react, and Zenpou's fist slammed into his chest, knocking him back several meters, crashing into a tree stem at the end of his trip.

In the meanwhile, Shippuu was able to disrupt his chakra flow in order to stop Hachuumaru's genjutsu.

"Good job you guys," praised Hachuumaru, struggling to stand up. "That did some serious damage."

"So have you finally come to your senses?" asked Zenpou.

Hachuumaru simply grinned and tore off his shirt, revealing what looked like a leech on his abdomen.

"Tell me, do you guys now what this is?" he asked. "It's a leech that's has several purposes. Instead of sucking blood, it sucks chakra. Because it saps your chakra, it can create excellent training conditions. But it's a rare species of leech, which is why it isn't such a popular training method."

"What's your point?" asked Shippuu.

"I've had this leech on this whole time, and guess how much of my chakra it was sapping. I'll tell you, about seventy percent."

Hachuumaru removed the parasite from his abdomen and his chakra levels skyrocketed.

MEANWHILE, IN A DIFFERENT PART OF THE FOREST

"Damn it, I have no idea where Shippuu went," muttered Kouun to himself. "I don't have the first clue where to look for him."

"Perhaps you won't need to find him," said a voice strangely familiar to Kouun.

The redhead turned around to see a man in a tight dark blue shirt and black pants. Over his shirt he wore a camo flak jacket. He had a mustache and blue hair tied in a ponytail. Kouun knew this man well, however.

He was none other, than Kensha-sensei.

END CHAPTER

Well, how ya like that? I told you that Kensha would return, and if you forgot who he was I recommend reading Chapters 4 and 5.

Hachuumaru has revealed that he has only been fighting with 30% of his power, and Kouun has met up with the traitorous Kensha. What kinds of plot twists will we experience in the next chapter: **Syndicate**


	25. Syndicate

"Kensha, weren't you labeled some kind of traitor?" asked Kouun. "You know, the whole tricking Shippuu into stealing that scroll."

"Well, you could say that," answered Kensha. "I must say though, you are quite well-informed."

Kouun then jumped off his tree branch and sped towards his former sensei with a Denki Sesshoku prepared. However, the ponytailed man caught Kouun's wrist and punched him in the chest. He then grabbed Kouun by the collar and slammed him into the branch. He then tossed him into the air a bit and kicked Kouun over to where he had attacked from.

"You're an idiot Kouun, using a frontal attack against your former taijutsu instructor."

"_He's damn right about that," _thought Kouun. _"Not one of my best moments right there."_

Kouun decided to make up for this mistake by taking out a summoning scroll. After making the appropriate hand seals, he used his Rakurai technique. A bolt of lightning shot forth from the center of the scroll. Kensha barely had time to dodge as the branch he stood on was annihilated. However, with a shift of balance, and an application of chakra, the former instructor managed to grab ahold of a branch above him. He swung himself on top of the branch and looked down at Kouun.

"It looks like you've learned a new trick over these past months," he said to his former student.

"_What's going on here?" _wondered Kouun. _"Sure he was an instructor, but I'd expect these kinds of movements from Sora-sensei."_

Kouun then threw a kunai at Kensha, but the traitor waited until the last second to throw a kunai of his own, deflecting the kunai at just the right angle that it would go straight up. He then jumped after the kunai and threw it in mid-air. This unexpected maneuver caught Kouun off-guard and the kunai landed right above his right kneecap. The preteen quickly pulled the knife out, but had to clutch his knee in pain.

Kensha wasted no time however. He jumped over right next to Kouun and kicked him into the tree stem. He then walked over nonchalant and grabbed his throat.

"J-just what is it that you want?" asked Kouun through his pain.

"Not what," replied Kensha. "But who. And who would that be? Simple, you, Kouun."

"So you want me you say?" asked Kouun with Kensha still grabbing his throat. "I'm flattered, but you've been rejected."

Kouun then detonated an explosive tag that he had set under him.

MEANWHILE, IN A DIFFERENT PART OF THE FOREST

The situation was dire. Hachuumaru's chakra levels had gone up over two hundred percent. Zenpou had been knocked out, and Shippuu was facing his best friend in the whole world. Things were looking pretty down.

The fight had somehow made it's way to the forest floor, and that was when all hell broke loose. Hachuumaru had regained use of his Doton abilities.

"Shippuu, you still have a chance to get out of here," said Hachuumaru. "Just take Zenpou and forget everything you saw."

"You know that I can't do that, Hachuu," replied Shippuu. "You've just taken down a fellow Konoha shinobi. That's something I can't ignore."

"Very well, Doton: Sasuyari (Earth Style: Stabbing Lance)!"

An earthen spike protruded from the ground and nearly went right through Shippuu, but the teenager jumped over it. He then spat a Goukakyou at his friend but the green haired teen blocked it with an Earth Shore Return. However, this was a mere diversion. Shippuu had activated his Chakra Yoroi and smashed right through Hachuumaru's shield only to find that he wasn't there.

"Where the hell did he-"

Shippuu was cut off by an uppercut from a fist made from dirt. Shippuu was knocked into the air but he got his bearings straight in time to land on his feet. However, he was captured by Hachuumaru's Doton: Akuma Haaku (Earth Style: Devil's Grasp). Hachuumaru then rose up from the ground.

"I'm sorry, but I can't let you go anymore, Shippuu," apologized Hachuumaru.

"What are you saying?" asked the orange haired teen.

"Simple, I'll answer all of your questions."

"Why did you skip out on your match?"

"Because I had an important mission to attend to."

"Why did you attack me and Zenpou?"

"Because you were getting in the way of my mission."

"…What is this mission?"

"I wouldn't ask that specific question if I were you," warned Hachuumaru.

"Answer. The. Damn. Question."

"I warned you…I need to get back to my home so I can file a report."

"And just what is this report?"

"A file on all the ninja graduates of this year up until the Chunin Exam."

"Wh-what?"

"Put the pieces together Shippuu. I'm. A. Spy."

"N-no…"

"I'm part of an organization seeking to unlock all the hidden jutsu of this world, even the ones locked away long ago. My mission was to pick out candidates to… 'join'… our little project. My idiot partner was supposed to steal your village's hidden scrolls but even he couldn't pull it off."

"What do you mean, your partner?"

"I think you remember Kensha, right?"

"You were working with that traitor!? Please tell me this is just a sick joke!"

"Sorry Shippuu, no joke. I'm a recruiter for the organization _Karasu. _This whole time I was getting close to you I was actually checking the combat potential of all our classmates. And I found the one who will be most useful. Not you, not Tsubame, no. The one who has the right motivation to join us."

"Who?"

"Well, duh, the one who wants power so he can prove himself. Kouun Raiden you dumbass."

"You mean, this whole time we were friends, you were…"

"Yup, I was using you in a conspiracy to steal the most sacred thing from you: your friend."

This was too much for Shippuu. Not only had he just learned that his first friend was a traitor, he was also using him so that he could kidnap his other friend. Shippuu's world was crashing in around him. So many thoughts were running around in his head, signs of evidence that he had missed before. And his brain did the only thing it could at the moment to protect his sanity. It shut off. And Shippuu fell unconscious.

"Funny, I never would have pictured Shippuu Uzumaki as a fainter," chuckled Hachuumaru. But I have a job to do. Sorry, Shippuu, but it looks like I have to kill you now."

Hachuumaru was about to reach for a kunai but then a fist collided with his face. It was Shippuu's and he had actually broken the Akuma Haaku. Shippuu looked up, but something was different. His usually cheery, green eyes had been glazed over and he was giving off an incredibly evil chakra.

"What the hell is this?" wondered Hachuumaru out loud.

He was answered when Shippuu's hand grabbed his throat. The demonic teen effortlessly lifted his former best friend and threw him at a tree trunk. Hachuumaru managed to stand up, but didn't find Shippuu anywhere. That is, until he felt the orange hair's leg come into contact with the tip of his skull. Shippuu then picked Hachuumaru up by his hair.

"_I've heard of power like this before," _thought Hachuumaru as he looked into the face of what seemed like the devil himself. _"Is this like some sort of Jinchuriki? No, I'm pretty sure Konoha only has the Kyuubi, and half of the others have been sealed away by those guys in the Akatsuki."_

Hachuumaru then quickly made the hand seals for another Stabbing Lance, but for some reason the earthen spear was destroyed right before hitting Shippuu. Upon closer inspection, Hachuumaru noticed that Shippuu was surrounded by what seemed to be an aura of chakra, a permanent Shinko Chakra Yoroi if you will.

_"Now this is just perfect," _thought Hachuumaru as he tried to come up with a plan to get out of this predicament.

MEANWHILE

Kouun had barely made it out of that explosion alive. He was charred and burnt, not to mention the number the impact of the explosion did on him. He was lucky to be alive after pulling a stupid stunt like that. He saw no trace of Kensha though, so he felt pretty good about it.

"Not bad kid," said a new voice.

Kouun turned around to see a fairly young looking man with short but shaggy brown hair. He wore a white shirt with a brown jacket and black khakis as well. His most distinguishing feature though, was his goggles that looked like a pair of fly's eyes.

"Who are you?" asked Kensha.

"My name is Ka Hae, but you can call me Ka-san," he chuckled.

"That's a really bad joke…" complained Kouun. (**note: **okaasan is the Japanese honorific for mother, but the 'o' sound is usually left out… at least when I hear it)

"I don't need to hear that from a guy whose half-dead. You see, the joke's on you."

"What do you mean by that?" asked Kouun.

Kouun was the thoroughly disgusted when he saw a mosquito crawl out of Ka's nose. The insect bit Ka on the wrist and then flew over to Kouun. The preteen was too battered and injured to swat the pest away so he just let it bite him. Kouun had expected just a slight itchy sensation, but instead a searing pain coursed through every vein in his body. He looked over in his pain and saw Kensha step out of the shadows right next to Ka.

"Nice going, sempai," complimented Kensha. "Should we take him with us now?"

"No, he'll come to us of his own free will one day soon."

Kouun fell unconscious as the two cohorts left him in the forest.

MEANWHILE

"Shippuu" was pounding away at an earth shield that had surrounded Hachuumaru. Inside the barrier, Hachuumaru was terrified. Who could blame him, he was covered in cuts and bruises, but outside the barrier was even worse. For more than a thirty yard radius, trees were either burned or uprooted, and the ground was charred, scorched, and damaged in almost any way possible. Hachuumaru had currently depleted about one third of his chakra supply just maintaining his barrier.

Hachuumaru then noticed the barrier get penetrated by Shippuu's fist which had been wrapped in flame. He quickly deactivated the jutsu and jumped away as far as possible from his psychopathic foe.

"It's been fun, Shippuu, but I have to go," said Hachuumaru. "Horu Hebi no Jutsu (Digging Snake Jutsu)!"

In a quick flash, Hachuumaru had dug a whole and made an incredibly fast getaway. Shippuu was about to pursue him, but his body gave out and he fell to the ground unconscious.

~~~End Chapter~~~

Hachuumaru is a traitor, working with Kensha and the mysterious Ka. Kouun has been bitten by a strange mosquito and Shippuu has awakened some terrible power. What's next to expect in the beginning chapter of the next season: **Resolution**…

I. Have. FINALLY. Gotten. To. This. Point. In. The. Story!!! I've been waiting for this bit for a long time. I'm sorry if this chapter feels rushed but I got real into it and ended writing it in one day… finishing at 2:45 in the morning!! I guess you could call this a Christmas gift to you guys. This chapter marks a turning point in the story, if you liked some of the fight scenes in the story so far, YOU ARE GOING TO LOVE THESE NEXT CHAPTERS. I'll admit that I'm not too good at writing story, and that I get that bigger rush out of writing fight scenes, but I assure you this story will only get better. I'm sorry for this little expose here too, I just feel really great right now!!!

See Ya Next Time!!!


	26. Resolution

"I still can't believe it," said Akane, inside of Shippuu, Kouun, and Zenpou's joint hospital room.

"I know," said Tsubame. "Them of all people!"

"Come on guys," said Sora. "It's not everyday that one of your classmates is promoted to chunin. You should be congratulating him."

"But Sensei, why was Shippuu promoted to chunin?" complained Kouun.

"First of all, the judges thought that he showed great potential in his match with Shin," answered Ryuuko. "But that alone isn't enough to promote you to chunin. They found that he showed great judgement in chasing after Hachuumaru when finding that something was amiss."

"Well, I chased after Shippuu and Zenpou! Doesn't that count for something?"

"You also tried to buy time for Shippuu to arrive during your match," was Ryuuko's deadpan reply. "I doubt that they saw a whole lot of potential in you in that fight."

"Hey Kouun, does that mean that I get a win in our little rivalry?" asked Shippuu. "That would mean, seven wins, seven losses, and three draws."

"Whatever," Kouun replied reluctantly.

"Sensei, you said that two more people were also promoted to chunin," Zenpou said to Ryuuko. "Who were they?"

"Suishou and Yamamaru were both promoted to chunin," answered Akane.

"That last fight was incredible," added Tsubame. "But Yamamaru won it with a good feint."

Everyone in the room carried on their own conversations and were basically having a very fun time. Who would've thought that they had recently found out that one of their most trusted friends was actually a spy for some organization. Perhaps this was all just some way of coping with that reality. Regardless, there was a knock on the door and before anyone could tell that person to come in, the door was kicked down.

"SHIPPUU!" yelled an angry voice.

"H-hey, what's up, Naruto?" asked Shippuu timidly.

"I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU GOT PROMOTED TO CHUNIN BEFORE ME!"

"I'M SORRY BUT YOU GOT TRAINED BY A FRICKIN SAGE! THAT'S HARDLY FAIR!"

"DAMNIT! THAT'S BECAUSE OF SPECIAL REASONS!"

"SHUT UP! I OUTRANK YOU NOW SO YOU HAVE TO LISTEN TO ME!"

"THIS ISN'T A MATTER OF RANK DAMNIT! I'M YOUR BIG BROTHER! WHO PICKED YOU OFF OF THE STREETS WHEN YOU WERE CRYING LIKE A LITTLE BABY?"

"SH-SHUT UP, STUPID GENIN!"

The two brothers went back and forth like this, throwing insult after insult at each other, none of which were very good. This whole time they hadn't noticed that everyone in the room was laughing at them. After a while the two calmed down and had a little laugh at themselves.

"Shippuu, I'm proud of you," said Naruto.

"Come on, Naruto, it's not like you being a genin will change anything," replied Shippuu. "You've been trained by a Sannin for god's sake. Your probably the strongest genin in history. I bet you came back to the village with Sasuke with you!"

"… No, not this time. Sasuke's stronger than ever before. But I'm about to work on a new jutsu to kick his ass and bring him back to the village!"

"That's great, Bro! I know you can do it!"

There was then another knock on the door and Tsunade walked into the room.

"Naruto, Kakashi and Yamato are looking for you," she said. "You should probably go see what they want."

Naruto said goodbye to Shippuu and went out the door.

"What's up, Grandma Tsunade?" asked Shippuu.

"You should be recovered in a day or two," answered Tsunade. "And I'm here to give you your orders upon your discharge. You are going to be a part of a special task force. It is composed of twenty ninjas divvied into teams of four. Your goal is to acquire any information on the Akatsuki possible. This team is known as the Nijuu Shotai. Your team leader will be Sora Washi and your teammates' names are Raijun Akatori and Yuki Kurotsuchi."

"You mean, I'm gonna be hunting the Akatsuki?" asked Shippuu excitedly.

"Not the Akatsuki, but information regarding the Akatsuki," corrected Tsunade. "Sora can I talk to you outside for a bit?"

Sora and Tsunade went outside Shippuu's room, while the others remained inside to carry on their own conversations.

"We had some ANBU do a memory scan on the boys to find out what happened. It turns out that they're after Kouun Raiden. I think it's best that the kids don't know this. Well, except for Shippuu and Kouun, who already know."

"Is that all, Milady?"

"There's another thing. While they were scanning Shippuu's memory they found out something interesting in his subconscious, his real name. His birth name is Shippuu Ryuuma."

"Ryuuma? I haven't heard of that name before. And what do you mean, 'in his subconscious'?"

"Well, it seems that Shippuu has a bit of amnesia from before he was six years old. And the Ryuuma were a powerful clan a long time ago, but they went extinct about seven years ago. Only a few months before Shippuu and Naruto became brothers."

"That's a little suspicious."

"I did some research on the Ryuuma clan's history but there wasn't anything recent, I had to go way back. The Ryuuma clan predates the village, back in the times when clans fought constant wars. They were as famous as the Senju and Uchiha clans, but not for their combat abilities. They were well known for their sealing jutsu, they could seal away anything or anyone."

"Anyone?"

"Yes, apparently, about a century before the foundation of Konoha, there was an incredible individual in the clan. He was the one who gave the clan their name. His name was Ryuuichi, and his chakra was massive. Apparently, because of his massive chakra supplies, no matter how old he got, he never aged a bit. For this, people feared him as a monster, and due to that fear people called him Ryuuichi no Ryuuma."

"And what's he got to do with Shippuu?"

"Because people feared him as a monster, he became a monster, and abandoned his clan. He went on a rampage, shaking up the entire ninja world. Eventually there was only one way to stop him. His grandson sealed him away inside of himself. However because of his massive chakra, if his host dies, then he will be released again. So the tradition became that he was to be resealed into the first-born child. But there was another catch. His chakra would also render the previous host impotent after the birth of his or her first child."

"So that's the story," said Sora. "Don't you think it's a bad idea to let someone like that chase after Akatsuki?"

"No, it should be okay. For a while, the Ryuuma were a nomadic clan, going from country to country. Eventually they settled down in Konoha due to the Second Hokage's kindness. The only records of the clan are here, in Konoha."

"I see, so what your saying is that Shippuu is like some sort of Jinchuriki, in a way. Damn, my team just keeps getting weirder and weirder."

LATER THAT NIGHT

"Yo, Kouun, you awake?" asked Shippuu.

"Yeah, what do you want, Shippuu?"

"I know why Hachuumaru defected, they're after you."

"Yeah, I know, your old pal Kensha told me."

"Well, if they want you over me, then I guess that's a win on your part."

"I'm okay with that, so that puts you at seven wins, eight losses, and three draws."

"Wait, it does? Nevermind then, I take your victory back."

"You can't take a victory back, dumbass. You're just being a sore loser."

"Well, I would've won our fight, so we should just leave it as a tie."

"You have no way of knowing that you'd win, just a hunch. So we stay with 8-7-3."

"Man you're stubborn," Shippuu chuckled.

"I guess that's one of my charm points."

"… Kouun, one more thing."

"Lemme sleep already, dammit."

"Fine, whatever," huffed Shippuu, raising his voice a bit, but slightly red in the face.

"Hey keep it down," mumbled a barely awake Zenpou.

"… _Kouun, I won't let this _Karasu _organization take you… not like they took Hachuumaru."_

With that thought out of his head, Shippuu drifted comfortably into the land of dreams.

MEANWHILE, IN AN UNDISCLOSED LOCATION

Kensha and Hachuumaru were kneeling in a dark room with Ka standing next to them.

"Sir, regarding the recruitment project…" started Kensha.

"It's fine, the only one we need right now is Kouun Raiden. Good job in finding him," answered a man with messy silver hair, a black karate outfit, and sharp canines.

"But Master, what of Shippuu Uzumaki?" asked Hachuumaru.

"That little punk is of no use to us, right Boss?" asked another man with long, dirty blond hair, no shirt, blue pants, and penetrating red eyes.

"Silence, Kanzen Kinzoku," said a very short man with no hair. He was clad in a green robe with armor underneath. He would look like a very goofy character if not for his pure black eyes. "This meeting will be going nowhere if we start shouting over each other."

"Dango is right," said a woman with short red hair, a blue shirt and skirt, a flame patterned jacket, and Tsunade-sized breasts. "Master Ougi, should when should we commence to attack to acquire the Raiden child?"

"We won't need to," said Ka. "He'll be coming to us. It depends on his willpower, I expect it'll take six to nine weeks."

"Are you sure about that Ka Hae?" asked Dango.

"I'm very sure, Dumpling."

"… It's Dango, not Dumpling…"

"Enough!" said the silver haired man, Master Ougi. "Our plan is coming to fruition. We will create… the ultimate ninja."

END CHAPTER

Shippuu is now a chunin, and will be hunting the Akatsuki. He has made a pledge to protect Kouun from the organization _Karasu_, who plan to create the ultimate ninja! What will happen next in the chapter: **Nijuu Shotai…**


End file.
